RWBY: Warning From the Future
by Patriot-112
Summary: She came back to warn them. To prevent the hell she was forced to live in. However, things don't exactly go as planned. - Rating varies from T to M, for various cursing and other things children shouldn't read. Pairings: Arkos, Whiterose, Bumbleby.
1. Prologue: Second Fall Maiden

**Author Note : _Now before all of you come and kill me, let me talk, or write, whatever...I recently watched RWBY, all the way from Volume 1 to Volume 3, and I loved it! But...like most people, I hated the ending of Volume 3. Sure it will strengthen Jaune as a character, but COME ON! I know Monty Oum, genius that I respect and God rest his soul, planned on killing her off, but to do it AFTER Pyrrha confesses her feelings to Jaune (by kissing him) and THEN kill her off is like a big SLAP on the face to the audience, especially the Arkos fans. There's one thing I don't like is sinking a love ship THAT IS EXTREMELY POPULAR!...(Takes deep breath) Okay enough of my rant. So this fic is based on my imagination of what could happen in the future of RWBY. It will involve Time Travel, and a massive headache of Butterfly effects. If you guys don't want to read this, then please leave...Okay then._**

 **Disclaimer : _RWBY belongs to Roosterteeth, not me. End of story. Now, let's begin!_**

 ** _P.S., Apologies in advance for any 4th Wall breaking, that's Ron the True Fan talking_. _Yes, he's helping me with this, but he was the only one available._**

* * *

 _ **Prologue**_

 _ **The Second Fall Maiden**_

* * *

 _ **Somewhere in Remnant**_

* * *

"Are we clear on the plan?" said an amber eyed, black haired young woman.

She was attired in a red dress with yellow highlights, black high heels, and a black jeweled anklet. Accompanying her, were two others, who were the same age as her.

"Yeah, when the host comes down the road, and falls for Emerald's illusion we jump her," said a young man with steel grey hair as he smirked cockily. Only to get smacked by a dark skinned woman with light green hair.

"Don't get cocky Mercury. She's a maiden for a reason," the woman reprimanded.

"Sheesh, sorry Mom!" Mercury shot back, and it looked like the two were about to argue when the same amber eyed woman spoke up.

"Enough!" she ordered, glaring at the two, and the both of them shut their mouths, knowing well enough not to anger the woman.

"Sorry, Cinder," Emerald apologized.

Cinder nodded at that knowing she got them to stop their usual bickering. She smirked, knowing after this they will be one step closer to bringing chaos to Remnant. It was her Queen's wish after all.

However, even the best laid plans can have the most stubborn of snags.

* * *

Unknown to the three, a pair of silver eyes, which hold a myriad of various emotions was glaring at the three with obvious hate. The owner of said eyes endured a lifetime of misery from these specific three, they pretended to be friends, caused the deaths of best friends that were seen as family, and lead the world into ruin. The person reached behind their back, grabbing what looked to be a folded up staff. They pressed a button and a large red scythe appeared, with it being almost seven feet tall, and pieces of a gun on the staff.

 _'This is it...,_ ' were their thoughts, ' _I can deal with them here. I'll kill them, and stop them from getting the Fall Maiden powers... I can save them, I WILL save them!_ '

With that thought in mind and a steadfast determination, as soon as the other two left Emerald on the road, the individual then launched themselves from their hiding spot, shooting off like a bullet. A stream of red rose petals left in their wake.

* * *

Emerald was getting her semblance ready for the trap before she felt something on the wind. Turning at the last moment, she caught a bit of red before she was knocked upside the head, by the blunt edge of a VERY large scythe, thankful that her aura was still at full strength, but she would definitely feel a headache afterward. The sound of their compatriot's yell of pain, caught the attention of both Cinder and Mercury as they turn and see the unexpected guest.

The said person was wearing a red hooded cloak so they couldn't see their face, as they nimbly swung the scythe around, then slammed the blade into the ground and began firing high impact rounds at them, causing them to dodge to avoid getting hit. When they got close enough, the figure went back into close combat as they deftly wielded the scythe in one hand, while the other hand reached behind her shoulder, and drew an o-katana type sword, with the blade itself being a onyx black. The clothing showed she was a woman, the attire itself being a black gothic style long sleeved dress, with a black lace up corset, black heeled lace up boots, and black fingerless gloves on her hands. Over that were pieces of combat armor, showing this woman was ready for war.

( **BGM: Coming Home by Kevin Sherwood** )

"Who..." Cinder began to demand, only to be interrupted by the attacker's voice.

"I'm your worst nightmare...," the stranger said, steel in her tone. But what she said next, sent Cinder for a loop, "... _Cinder Fall_."

The mystery woman began her attack, both blades narrowly missing Cinder with each swing. The false Maiden knew that this woman, whoever she was, was beyond her current skill level.

The bitch was TOYING with her. The O-Katana flew by her face, and Cinder was surprised when it cut through her aura and leave a small cut on her cheek.

Emerald, who had shaken off the dizziness after the hit decided to engage the mystery woman via by shooting at her with her sickle revolvers. However, the woman did something none of them expected...she actually blocked them from hitting her with her aura alone.

Only a Maiden had THAT level of aura reserves. Meaning their intel was wrong.

THIS was the Fall Maiden. And she was here to show them no mercy.

"I've waited a long time for this Cinder." The woman began to say, making the trio blink in confusion at that, "I'm going to make you and your cronies suffer, and when I'm done with you, I'm going after your bitch queen, next,"

That made Cinder's eyes widen in shock. How the hell did she know about Salem?

Her thoughts were interrupted as the red cloaked woman charged at her again using tremendous speed, while roaring a battle cry, as she slashed at the False Maiden. The blades of the two weapons were wielded expertly by the woman, as they kept getting closer and closer.

Cinder realized one thing, this crazy bitch was going to kill her!

The katana blade finally made contact, cutting deep into Cinder's arm, making her wince as the mysterious huntress went back a few steps, a smirk of satisfaction was seen on her mouth as she prepared the final blow.

Mercury and Emerald's eyes widened at what happened, they knew that Cinder was no slouch when it came to fighting, but this woman had her on the ropes. And now she was going to kill her. Their thoughts were interrupted when the woman spoke again.

"No more fire for you, you murderous c-" The mystery woman stopped suddenly, then began violently coughing. "Not now! Oum damn it, why NOW?!"

Cinder and the other two blinked in confusion as she saw the coughing get worse, and the woman lost concentration. Her weapons dropping to the ground, as she dropped to her knees and grasping her chest as if in pain.

"NO! *cough,cough* Not now!" the woman kept gasping out, as Emerald and Mercury saw their chance and rushed at the woman grabbing her arms and restraining her, "AGH!"

Cinder stood up, wincing a bit, while an arrogant smirk was plastered on her face. She then reached into the pouch on her belt, where the glove Salem gave her was stored. Although it was a pain due to her now injured arm.

While a struggle, she managed to get the glove onto her hand. She was going to need a LOT of medical attention, Maiden or not. She walked up to the restrained Maiden as her hood was pulled off her head by Emerald, revealing mid back length black/red colored hair, with black being the root and red being the tip, and a pair of silver colored eyes.

"You nearly killed me." Cinder actually complimented, "But in the end...I still win, Maiden."

The Maiden's response was to glare hatefully at her before spitting a mix of saliva and blood at her face.

"Go. Fuck. Yourself." She said spitefully, only to get kicked by one of Mercury's cybernetic legs, making her bend over, and making the coughing worse.

"Aww, now see?" Cinder said as she wiped the mixed spittle away, "That's the spirit!"

She then reached down and lifted the woman's head up by her chin, and looking into her silver that showed a good amount of defiance.

"I should thank you for saving us the trouble of finding you," Cinder said, before a thought crossed her mind, "After I take your power, I will keep you alive so I can take you back to the Queen, so we can learn how much you know about us,"

With that she began raising her gloved hand, which the woman saw as her eyes widened with fright and and tried frantically to get free, much to Cinder's enjoyment.

"No! No! NOO! DAMN IT! GET AWAY FROM ME!" the woman shouted again, just as as an insectoid Grimm appeared on the palm of the gloved hand. Mercury had to punch the struggling woman across the face to stun her.

 _'N-No...N...not like this_ ,' were the woman's thoughts as she saw the Grimm insect getting ready to steal the Maiden power from her. She cursed the corruption she had as the pain was beginning to take it's toll on her, as she can see her eyes darkening. Tears fell from her eyes as they fluttered closed. _'Everyone...I-I'm sorry_ ,'

With that the woman blacked out just as Cinder was smirking in victory.

But victory was short lived. Before she could start the process, a shotgun blast rang out, followed by a storm of frozen leaves that forced Emerald and Mercury to let the woman go, as she slumped to the ground.

Soon a grey-black haired man with a sword and the Fall Maiden from their intel reports appeared and beat the three away from their attacker ... And the woman was ALSO using the powers as well!

 _'For fuck's sake, Branwen?!_ ' Cinder cursed.

While she was an even match for him, she was wounded, and Qrow would mop the floor with Mercury and Emerald. Not to mention the OTHER Maiden with him.

Discretion was the better part of valor. In other words, run away and not die.

"Let's get out of here!" Emerald and Mercury heard as they looked to her, "...We'll try another day!"

With that the three of them disappeared, thanks to Emerald's illusion semblance.

"Dammit!" Qrow shouted, "They got away!"

He then turned his attention to Amber who was now kneeling on the ground next to the woman who was now unconscious.

"She's out cold, and coughing up blood." Amber removed the woman's hood, her features startling Qrow.

She had black hair with red highlights, and her eyes, though half-lidded, were a deep silver.

She looked like his old teammate and friend from Team STRQ, Summer Rose. But Summer's hair was a darker hue, and that wasn't her weapon.

That was Crescent Rose, albeit it looked slightly banged up and modified, which belonged to his niece. The sword was a nice touch, though.

But Ruby was 14, turning 15 this year. This was NOT her. The woman before them looked to be in her mid twenties at least!

Deciding it was best to ask questions later, Qrow pulled out his scroll as he began to type a text to Ozpin, while Amber tried helping the woman.

"You better get here fast, Oz...,"

* * *

 _ **Beacon Academy Vault**_

 _ **Kingdom of Vale**_

 _ **Hours Later**_

* * *

Professor Ozpin, Headmaster of Beacon Academy looked on as the mystery woman was placed on the hospital bed, the doctors going to work on keeping her alive.

He was joined by Glynda Goodwitch, telekinesis expert and teacher of the combat classes.

The third member of the party was General James Ironwood, a cyborg who was loyal to his kingdom and the people of Remnant to a fault, but lacking in asymmetrical warfare experience.

And joining them was Amber, and of course Qrow Branwen, her Shadow, who had found the woman in question.

"What exactly happened, Qrow?" Questioned Ozpin as the said field agent sighed, and surprisingly, not once taking a gulp from his flask.

"In actual honesty, Oz?" Qrow said, before looking at the woman, "I don't have an Oum damned clue. I received a tip that Amber was compromised and went to get her, but when I showed up at the place to meet her, I arrived at the aftermath of a battle,"

Amber took over for Qrow. "She took on three people, one of whom clearly had something related to...stealing the powers of the Maidens." the current Fall Maiden said, "She almost started the process before we intervened."

"Which begs the question of how she could have the powers of a Maiden: all four are accounted for." Ozpin clarified before looking to Amber. "No offense."

"None taken, Headmaster." said Amber before looking at the currently unconscious woman. "Actually, it was strange really. I was riding on my horse when I felt the fight, then on our way here, and right now, at this very moment, I...I can actually feel the presence of Maiden powers within her,"

The two Headmasters, professor and field agent all had raised eyebrows at that.

"But how is that even possible?" James said, but before anyone could answer they hear one of the doctors, who was using a medical scanner over the woman's chest, gasped in surprise, before his eyes widened in great concern before he rushed back to them.

"It gets worse." The man reported, "Something is...trying to crush her heart and lungs. Scans seem to show it to be Grimm in nature, but...that's impossible."

The group all had wide eyes at that.

"A type of Grimm that can attack a human inside the body?" Glynda said in horror, "How is that even-,"

Her analysis was interrupted though as the woman began to convulse again, catching everyone's attention, making the medical staff rush to hold her down, lest she hurt herself any further. It was made worse when she began coughing up blood, and spitting it out. This caused everyone to panic.

"Shit! Any ideas?!" Qrow shouted "Otherwise, we're gonna lose her!"

Ozpin turned and looked at the table where the woman's belongings were, including her red cloak, her weapons, and finally all of her accessory equipment, and other items. He briefly looks at the weapons before his eyes settled on a pouch on one of the belts. He moved over to inspect it, seeing a medical symbol detailing the Grimm mask of the scorpion like Deathstalker. He then proceeded to open the pouch.

Inside it were at least a dozen syringes. All filled with a kind of white Dust, though it was different than the usual medical versions. He took off the pouch and showed it to the others.

"I believe the pun is 'worth a shot'?" asked Ozpin, and Qrow took one, before walking over and shoved it into her heart, depressing the needle and injecting it into her body. The convulsions stopped and she laid back down, peacefully.

"Ok, I don't want to do that again. EVER." Qrow said with finality, as Ozpin turned to the cyborg Atlesian general.

"James, can you have your best doctors study this so they can mass produce it?" He asked, "We're definitely going to need a lot more to keep her alive,"

James nodded as he took the pouch, before more surprised gasps were heard and they turn back to the woman and their eyes widen as they see a golden glow appear briefly before vanishing.

"...That's impossible." Amber said in shock, "Those are the powers of the Fall Maiden."

"You didn't lose those, did-" Amber smacked Qrow to shut him up. "What!?"

Amber just glared at him, "If I had lost them I would've known!"

Ozpin showed one of his rare surprised expressions, clearly at a loss at what he's seeing.

"We're going to need a blood sample," he said, "That will tell us her identity."

One of the doctors heard him and did exactly that as he took an empty and extracted a small sample of blood, before going to a data computer that was there.

"Yeah, because calling her 'Big Ruby' is just damn CREEPY." Qrow said, causing the others to look at him with 'WTF' expressions. The drunken scythe wielder sighed as he reached into his pocket, pulling out a scroll, "Here, I took it out of the carrying case on her belt while we waited for the Bullhead. See for yourself."

Ozpin took the scroll from Qrow and inspected it, looking over every inch of it, spotting the Burning Black Rose emblem. It was Glynda who spoke out Ozpin's observations of the device..

"That's...that's a Beacon Academy scroll!" she said, "Albeit a well modified one,"

Ozpin opened it, with a vid file being openly displayed beside the ID.

The ID read _'Ruby Rose'_ along with the age, profession, blood type, and birthdate. Which wasn't possible. Ozpin then looked at the tab on the screen that got his attention the most, a vid file

It was titled 'Play me', which the point was obvious. So, Ozpin pushed the button.

After that a vid screen appeared on the Scroll. It was static at first until the face of the said woman appeared. Wide awake, but looking exhausted, and having a depressed look upon her face.

" _This is Ruby_ _Rose_." The young woman introduced, " _I'm twenty five years old, born in the Kingdom of Vale, and a former Huntress student from Beacon Academy. If you're watching this, and you're not me, then something must've gone wrong_ ,"

Qrow's first and only comment on the entire affair was this.

"No fucking shit." SMACK! "OW!"

He was just double slapped by both Glynda and Amber.

Ironwood looked to Ozpin, while the said Headmaster of Beacon stopped the video to shake his head.

"This can't be possible." He said, his confusion clear to all in the room, "I have records from Signal: Ruby Rose is _15_."

"Perhaps we should just let the video play." Glynda suggested, "It might explain more."

Ozpin nodded stiffly as he continued playing the video.

" _To tell my story, I will start from the beginning,_ my _beginning. On the day I was accepted into Beacon Academy, two years early_ ," she said catching the four off-guard, of course, they shouldn't be surprised since it was Qrow who trained her, " _At my initiation, I, along with my sister Yang Xiao Long, Weiss Schnee, and Blake Belladonna, formed Team RWBY, while several of my other friends, including Jaune Arc, Pyrrha Nikos, Nora Valkyrie, and Lie Ren, formed Team JNPR. Our First semester was nothing special, except listening boringly to Professor Port's younger day stories, trying to keep up with Professor Oobleck during his history lectures, and attending battle simulation classes with Professor Goodwitch. Just being the average students, all the while getting ready for the 40th Vytal Festival that school year._ "

Her mood then darkened instantly. " _But when it came, it all went to hell. Cinder Fall, a loyal lackey to a Grimm...queen, whatever she is, named Salem, caused all sorts of hell by sabotaging the tournament and then unleashing the Grimm inside the city and stadium. Somehow, she turned Atlas' new robot soldiers against their makers, like some sci-fi show, which made matters...worse. My sister lost her arm to that BASTARD, Adam Taurus of the White Fang - by the way, note to self, kill him as slowly as possible - while Weiss was taken back to Atlas, AGAINST HER WILL, I might add, while Blake tried to stay away from us to protect us from Adam. Wasn't happy about that, but it's the thought that counts._ "

Her eyes then suddenly took a more somber look. " _We...also lost good friends that day_ ," she said sadly as tears leaked from her eyes, " _The two most important... were Penny Poledonia, a robot girl developed by Atlas, and...,"_ they saw how it was difficult for her to speak as she gulped, looking ready to break down _,"...and Pyrrha,"_

That caused everyone to raise their brows at that. Especially Ozpin and Ironwood.

"Pyrrha?" Glynda said, having heard of the Mistralian regional champion, "Pyrrha Nikos?"

Ozpin was also shocked by this, having heard of the gifted young girl from her Sanctum Academy records. Though a four time champion, Pyrrha was also kind, and intelligent, and possessed a great will to help others. The Mistralian was actually Ozpin's choice if anything happened to Amber. However, he turned his focus back to the recording as the Elder Ruby continued.

" _Cinder put a fucking arrow through her chest, and then she just...burned her body to ash. I...I got mad, and unleashed my...special power. (_ Cue wide eyes from Ozpin and Qrow _) Yes, I know about the silver eyes and about what they do-_ " The woman stopped abruptly as she grabbed her chest, covered her mouth, and began coughing violently, making everyone watching concerned. They watched as she quickly grabbed a syringe and inject the same white dust into her, and the glow of the Fall Maiden Power appeared again as she gasped for air, _"...s-sorry about that, I'll explain that later after I'm done with telling you what happens next. When I activated the Silver Eyes' power, I froze the Grimm Dragon at the top of the CCT tower. However, that bitch Cinder still managed to get away..."_

 _"I still regret not getting to Pyrrha in time even now."_ she solemnly said, _"And I'll forever live with that, for the rest of my life_ ,"

It was quiet for a moment before she lightly coughed. " _After the battle, Ozpin went missing and Team RWBY was disbanded. The CCT went offline, rendering communication with the outside world impossible, and no repair crew can get close to it, due to the frozen but still alive Grimm at the top, along with the other Grimm now occupying Beacon. I managed to reunite what was left of JNPR, forming Team RNJR, and we left Patch to hunt her down. Two years we spent hunting that cunt, only to find out about Salem. Bigger fish, I guess._ " The screen switched out to a picture of the 'Grimm Queen'. Everyone looked at the picture of the being that was supposedly the source behind the Grimm. Her skin was pale as bone with dark purple veins forming around her eyes, and arms which the whites were colored black and the irises crimson red. Ozpin and Qrow were both equally glaring at the photo, knowing who it is, " _But soon after we found out about her, Salem launched an attack on all the Kingdoms. It was the beginning of a war that would last for six hellish years, and in the end, there was no winner...just...just death_ ,"

The five were horrified by that statement.

" _It took a while. Mistral fell first, but they did NOT fall easily. Vacuo, Vale, Menagerie and finally Atlas followed. In the last year, I led every last surviving hunter, including my former team, to Salem's lair. We'd believed if she dies, so do the Grimm. I killed Cinder, gaining the powers of the Fall Maiden, and with the silver eyes, I used it to kill Salem_." She then closed her eyes as a grimace formed on her face, " _But, in the end, everyone else died. And...I was the last one left_."

Everyone was not liking were this was going.

" _I was the last person to remain alive on Remnant, while everyone else...Human, Faunus, men, women, and... c-children alike were all wiped out...Remnant itself, no more than a wasteland now..."_

They watched as Ruby wrapped her arms herself as she began to weep uncontrollably. Her eyes were closed, but tears still managed to escape.

" _I-I'm...I'm sorry, everyone...I'm so sorry... Yang... Weiss... Blake...Jaune...Pyrrha...Nora... Ren...Dad...Uncle Qrow...P-please, forgive me_ ," she sobbed out as the teachers all looked at the broken young woman before them.

Qrow fell onto his knees, as he grabbed his hair in anger. His niece had been through hell, that he hoped she would never have to go through. But unfortunately in this case, it did.

She stopped crying for a second, and she attempted to regain her composure. " _That was two years ago. The Grimm didn't die as we hoped, but instead turned feral and more vicious after that. Just...more wild. I've actually been hoping one would kill me. One of them nearly succeeded: a Deathstalker. I killed it, but not before it stung me. The corruption...and the coughing attacks are cause of that. Eventually, what I call the Strangler WILL kill me, but the maiden powers are holding it back. But they're at their limit: the attacks happen more often. I thus use special White dust developed by Atlas doctors in order to boost them...however, eventually I'll run out, and... it will kill me._ "

That caused Amber and Glynda to gasp in horror, Qrow to grit his teeth in anger, Ironwood's cybernetic hand to clench, and Ozpin to grasp his cane very tightly.

" _At first, I willing to stop using the White Dust and just let the Strangler take me...so I can be with everyone I loved_ ," she said, as more tears ran down her face, " _I do not, and_ still _do not, believe I deserve to live after everything that happened. I had failed everyone... my father, my mother, my sister, my friends, EVERYONE."_

The adults were growing concerned, seeing as the now older Ruby, had a death wish. They then blinked in confusion as she smiled softly.

 _"But...then I found hope_ ,"

She shifted the scroll around, the image showed a large room, with a single platform surrounded by a ring of sorts. " _The Atlesian government put a LOT of money into making this thing. Apparently, it's designed to send someone back in time. I would've sent a killer robot, or something, but I think I'll do the trick_." Ruby reentered the scroll's view, now smirking. " _It took me weeks of work, but I got it working. I'm going back in time. And Cinder Fall DIES when I see her. Without her, Salem is seriously declawed._ "

However her face became crestfallen at that, " _However, it's a one-way trip. And...with my...ailment, something can go wrong real fast. That's why I put together a file on my scroll, as a final gift to you, should I...not succeed_."

Qrow looked at the woman on the bed, now feeling greatly worried and protective _._

 _"During the past ten years, I've gotten better with more than just my beloved sweetheart Crescent Rose,"_ Ruby said, getting their attention, _"I can now also wield swords, handguns, and other weapons. And I know how to design and forge armor, and design better weapons_."

Qrow couldn't help but smile in pride in how far Ruby would come in her profession as a huntress and a weapon smith.

" _The file for the schematics is locked under a password... which only I know unfortunately_ ," she said sheepishly, scratching the back of her head, causing everyone to sweat-drop, " _Of course, the only hint I can give you is that it's an old nickname I got on my first day at Beacon after an...err...embarrassing moment_ ,"

She suddenly started crying again, while smiling all the same. " _Dad, Uncle Qrow, Yang, Blake, Weiss...everyone...I love you all. And I will NEVER forget is Ruby Rose, signing off_." She looked at the device, before pressing a switch activating it, the ring beginning to turn. " _No turning back_." The vid ended, leaving them all stunned.

"Well...still the same Ruby, in spite of her...brokenness." Qrow said as he looked at the young woman, just as the doctor came back. His face showing disbelief

"Professor Ozpin, the test results came back positive," the doctor said "It's... a one hundred percent match. This woman is who she claims to be. She's the _real_ Ruby Rose,"

It was silent for a moment, before Qrow stood up, and taking a longer than usual gulp from his flask, before putting it away. He then walked over to the hospital bed, and bent down before placing a comforting hand on her head.

"Someone is going to have to tell Tai he has a third daughter." Qrow laid out, while Ozpin nodded in agreement.

"More then that." He said, "We need to protect her. James-"

"I will bring in the best I can spare." the Cyborg said with a nod, "I would use Winter, but that would pose a security risk."

"It would also be a personal conflict: her sister is, or WILL be, on young Rose's team." Glynda pointed out.

That was a given now: Ozpin knew he was NOT changing that. He'd rig the whole thing if he had to: Team RWBY would come into being.

"I'll also take a look into that time machine we saw," he said, before reminding himself, "What about the other team? Team JNPR?"

"I don't see why they shouldn't be formed, either." Ozpin said and then looked to Ruby. "She came from a hellish future, with the full intent to change it. And she was willing to die for it."

"She's also VERY vulnerable," Qrow growled out, "That bitch knows that Ruby is no longer able to defend herself. She'll be back for her, not just to finish what she started by taking the Maiden powers, but to no doubt find out what Ruby knows. And if she succeeds, the world's toast,"

Amber stepped forward. "If it's alright with all of you, I'll stay to protect her. In a way, she's a sister. And I'm _not_ letting her fall."

Ozpin nodded as the two left, Ironwood nodding to the headmaster before leaving, with only Glynda and himself remaining behind.

"And what about Team RWBY and Team JNPR? Should they know about this?" Glynda said as she looked at the Elder Ruby in concern.

"When they're ready, we'll tell them." Ozpin decreed, "But not one moment before. They're involved, Glynda, whether we want them to be or not."

He then looked at the scroll, and blinked when he saw that Ruby made more than one video entry. Pressing the button, it showed a list with names, which included the said teams as well as a few others. Ozpin smiled sadly as he looked back at the young woman lying motionless and vulnerable.

"You truly are an interesting person, Miss Rose," He said, "I have no doubt, your mother will be very, VERY proud of you,"

* * *

 **Patriot-112: _Prologue done! What will happen now that Ozpin and his secret group now have warning of the future events to come? Well, I can you tell you one thing...a lot. Also, special thanks to Ron the True Fan. His writing style maybe a little...dark, and Deadpool-ish, but hey, it moves the plot along. Also, I wrote other chapters in advance, and after I do a little editing, they will come out. Until then...later!_**


	2. Chapter 1: Young Rose

_**A/N Disclaimer: Same as last chapter, so all you lawyers: make like a tree, and LEAVE!**_

 _ **Other notes** : **To all other haters of the specific pairings that I choose, if you don't like the pairing I choose for my fics, then don't read, or review, just keep to yourself, and don't. Say. ANYTHING! I don't want a shouting match. Now onto the chapter.**_

* * *

 **Chapter One: Young Rose**

* * *

 **Kingdom of Vale**

 **Dust til Dawn shop**

* * *

It was a quiet night in the city of Vale. A majority of the populace went home for the night, while the only ones still up and about, were the police on graveyard shifts and a few shops and stores. One shop in particular, was the From Dust til Dawn shop, which sold a wide assortment of Dust, Dust Crystals, and other accessories related to the said material, to Hunters and Huntresses.

The owner, who was quite old, stood at the counter, waiting for a customer. Except for that nice girl in the back who was reading a magazine, albeit strangely on the next big weapon deals for Hunters.

The front door opens, and in came a man wearing a white suit and a black bowler hat, orange hair covering his left eye, escorted by men wearing red sunglasses and black suits with red ties. The man in white looked around before talking to the owner. "Do you have any idea how hard it is to find a Dust shop open this late?"

One of the goons pointed a gun at the old man. The threat was clear as the old man raised his hands in alarm, "P-please! Just take my Lien and leave!" he begged while the orange haired leader patted the air and hushed at him.

"Calm down, we're not here for your money." Directly, at least, as he looked to the goons. "Grab the Dust."

Two of the goons nodded as they went to the Dust Dispensers, canisters in hand. Another of the crooks placed a case on the display counter in front of the old man.

"Crystals. Burn. Uncut." The crook demanded, and the old man hesitantly did what he was told. The other goons looked around the store gathering more dust, while making sure there was no one else. One of them however, spotted the said girl in the back reading a magazine.

He approached, drawing his red blade. "Alright kid, put your hands where I can see 'em." The hooded girl did nothing, which agitated the goon, as his brow furrowed and gritted his teeth, "Hey, I said hands in the air! You got a death wish or something!?" He put his hand on her shoulder, before turning her around.

The said girl looked at him, silver colored eyes looking confused, as a pair of earphones were on her head and were playing music.

"Huh?" was the only thing she said, while the goon gritted his teeth as he motioned to his head, meaning to take the damn things off, which the girl did, and gave a smile.

"Yes?" she asked.

"I said, put your hands in the air, now!" The girl, Ruby Rose, raised an eyebrow.

"Are you... robbing me?" she asked.

The goon, frustrated beyond all hope, simply said "YES!"

The girl then gave a smirk, "Ahh..."

Back at the front counter, the man in the white suit was inspecting a red dust crystal when he heard one of the grunts give a pained shout and flew right passed him into some merchandise by the window. He signals one of the goons to go find out what the problem was.

Seconds later, he went flying out the window. As did Ruby, who pulled out her weapon as soon as she landed outside before twirling the scythe around a few times, and planting the blade itself into the ground, pointing the weapon at the store. The goons looking outside the now smashed open window in confusion and surprise.

Before turning off her headset.

Roman, understandably, was going 'the fuck?'.

"O~kay~..." His hired goons were just as stupefied.

If not more so. He then looked to the goons he hired for this job.

"Get her." he growled out, motioning with his head for extra emphasis.

The said crooks did as ordered as they went outside to deal with the little pest who got in the way of their heist. And thus, one of the men rushed toward her in order to slash her with his sword, only for the red hooded girl to nimbly jump up and double kicked him in the face sending back toward the shop wall. Another one tried to attack her from behind only for the girl to fire her weapon sending her into a spin, which the scythe caught one of the goons sending him into the air, before. The final grunt begun firing his Dust Pistol at her, but the girl just nimbly dodged the bullets before charging in and sent the goon back, landing at Roman's feet.

Roman groaned. "You were worth every cent. _Truly_ , you were." he said sarcastically, know truthfully, that they weren't worth the shit that came out of their asses.

Torchwick's just sarcastic that way.

He dropped his cigar on the ground, before putting it out with the cane he held. "Well, Red, I think we can all say it's been an eventful evening, and as much as I'd love to stick around..." He leveled the cane with Ruby, the end flipping upwards and serving as the sights for the projectile mode.

"I'm afraid this is where we part ways." with that, he pulled the trigger as a red flare shot out of the cane and straigh toward the girl, who used her weapon to get out of the way... though the street was not so lucky. After she landed the young teenager looked around for Torchwick, before spotting him climbing up a fire escape ladder to the roof of a nearby building.

She looked toward the old man who came out of the shop.

"You okay if I go after him?" she asked, and the old man only nodded, as Ruby continued with the chase.

* * *

Roman was not pleased. A trainee huntress fouled up the ENTIRE heist. She was good, that was for sure.

"HEY!"

And unwilling to let him go, it seems.

"Persistent..." he groaned out as Ruby cocked her scythe rifle, Crescent Rose, but a Bullhead VTOL ruined her plans to take Torchwick down as he climbed into it once the side hatch opened.

The criminal leader picked up the red dust crystal and threw it at the feet of the red hood wearing teen.

"End of the line, Red!" Roman shouted and then took aim and fired Melodic Cudgel at the crystal. Just as the round hit it, another figure jumped in front of Ruby, arm outstretched as a seal glyph appeared in front of them, acting as a shield therefore protecting them from the explosion.

While Roman laughed in victory, his smile was soon wiped off his face as he spotted the newcomer.

The semi-tattered cape and business-like attire combined with the glasses and the riding crop that still gave Roman nightmares at night, and it identified her as Glynda Goodwitch.

And two words were mentally spelled out for him in his brain, '...oh fuckery,"

After the glyph faded, Glynda then gave a flick of her wrist sending beams of purple light at the Bullhead transport, scoring some hits on it, and nearly making Roman lose his balance as he stumbled toward the cockpit.

"We got a Huntress!" Roman said to the woman piloting.

Flying the Bullhead, was none other than Cinder Fall, clad in a new dress, but was now sporting some shadows under her eyes. In an alternate time, she would have put up one hell of a fight and did some badass blocking of .50 BMG equivalent rounds fired from Crescent Rose.

But unfortunately, things were about to go down differently.

When Cinder rushed to the back, instead of firing fireballs at them...

She froze as her amber eyes widened in horror as she spotted the person next to Goodwitch.

Red cape, silver eyes and a High-Caliber Sniper-Scythe Rifle. Cinder began having VERY inconvenient flashbacks to her failure before she began muttering frantically.

"Oh Oum, oh Oum, oh Oum." She then looked to Torchwick, flying the Bullhead in her place. "FLY TORCHWICK FLY!"

"What?!" Roman said, looking at the now scared woman who snapped her head to him, her eyes wide in both anger and fear.

"DO AS I SAY!" She screeched, making the master criminal do as she says and began to hit the pedal to the metal. Glynda watched as the Bullhead sped away, while blinking confusedly at what she managed to see in the passenger area of the transport.

Glynda did not know what the hell just happened, but right now though...

"You're a huntress!"

And here came the fangirl. Oh JOY. Glynda turned to look at the girl, and she had to be honest, the Younger Ruby Rose was not what she expected. Instead of the tired looking, depressed looking woman, she saw a energetic, lively child, with the added innocence to boot.

"Can I have your autograph!?" she said cheerfully, making the female professor blink before sighing.

* * *

Back on the Bullhead, Cinder was sitting down as she had her hands on her head.

She was there, _right there_. Same face, same colored hair, same eyes, and same weapon.

 _'She can't be there. She can't be, nononononono, she wasn't coughing. No cough, the outfit was wrong- oh who the fuck am I trying to kid?! IT_ WAS _HER!_ '

After a careful examination of just how BADLY she was owned, Cinder has developed what a small few refer to as ruberphobia.

While it means 'fear of the color red' in two old languages, it actually refers to Cinder's fear of the Elder Ruby. She could still remember that murderous look in that woman's silver eyes, the way she swung her scythe and sword in order trying to slice her head off, the feeling of the katana as it cut her cheek and slashed her arm. Though she was saved by the strange cough the woman had, and she had the little bitch at her mercy, that drunk moron Branwen showed along with that other Fall Maiden and prevented her from taking the powers of the other Maiden.

That didn't please Salem at all...not one bit.

"Hey! Are you okay back there!?" said Roman from the cockpit.

"Just keep flying back to the base Roman!," Cinder said, but as soon as she heard him begin to speak again she snapped. "NOW!"

"Yeesh! Okay, okay!" the thief said, startled by the vicious tone in her voice, "Damn! What the hell is the matter with her?"

Cinder only continued to remember that day, when she was almost killed, and how she swore she will get back at her...somehow.

" **I'm your worst nightmare,"** she heard her voice in her head, "... ** _Cinder_ _Fall_**."

The woman screamed once more.

* * *

While they weren't in-laws anymore, Taiyang Xiao Long still liked seeing Qrow Branwen around. Mostly to have a good drink and reminisce about the good old days with the two women that Taiyang had ever loved...Qrow's sister Raven, and the white hooded cloaked Summer Rose.

Of course...until Qrow, quite literally, dragged him to Beacon straight from his home. While he was ASLEEP in bed. So, yeah, right now, he was greatly annoyed with his friend from Team STRQ having woke him up in the middle of the night.

"This better be good, Qrow," Taiyang grumbled, yawning, all the while looking around the Academy he hadn't seen in years, "You and Ozpin better have a good excuse for waking me up at ONE THIRTY in the morning!"

"Oh, TRUST ME, Tai. You'll _love_ this." Qrow said, with sarcasm mixed in, as he led Taiyang into the building, ignoring their combined memories of MUCH better times.

Summer Rose and Raven Branwen should've been there with them. But Raven, self-hating and avenging bitch that she was, was out searching for something while Summer just vanished, and was presumed dead. Both women gone tore the two men up, mostly for Taiyang because he lost TWO women he loved very much. And thus why he was so protective of BOTH of his girls. Both of them, being the spitting facial images of their respective mothers.

Qrow was SO going to beat the living shit out of Raven for running off like that.

"And what is it that'll make me _love_ it?" he said, as they entered the main tower.

"I'll let Oz, explain." Qrow said, "But, to be honest, you're gonna be as frantic as mega shit."

The pair entered an elevator, but it went down instead of up. This confused Taiyang as he blinked at the elevator's descent.

"Did Ozpin move his office?" he asked confusedly.

"We're not going to his office. This is a little bigger than just our favorite redhead being admitted here two years early." Both flinched at that. Their real favorite redhead was Summer, but she was...gone. Ruby, reluctantly for them, took up the title. Though, they still cared for her greatly, especially since the 'incident' concerning a formerly obsessed Yang who was desperate to find her birth mother.

The lift stopped before the doors opened and they exited, entering a large vault.

"What the hell...?" Taiyang said, but Qrow just motioned for him to follow, and the two walked on, as Taiyang saw in the middle of the room what looked like a mobile hospital room. And it was being guarded by Atlesian soldiers, who wore the signature armor, but the uniforms underneath were pure black.

Outside the said unit was Ozpin himself, along with Glynda, with both of them having 'grim' expressions.

"Taiyang, good of you to come here," the Headmaster greeted.

Taiyang blinked at the expressions the two professors had.

"I'm a little peeved you had Qrow wake me up in the middle of the night," he said, while glaring at said drunken friend, "But since I still have respect for you, and still see you as an old friend, I'll let you explain what the Hell's going on,"

Ozpin sighed as he motioned to follow him, leading him away from the mobile hospital to a table which a few items were placed. When Taiyang approached it, he saw some familiar things that made his heart stop for a moment.

A red cloak, a collapsed HVSS, a medicine pouch with a Deathstalker mask stamped on it, among other items, including a damaged handgun, what looked like a piece of Yang's Ember Celica gauntlets and a burned white handguard for a Multi-Action Dust Rapier. While it wasn't exactly familiar, it looked like the sword that the younger of the two Schnee heiresses had.

A bronze circlet, with two emeralds attached to small chains on either side, also sat there, almost mocking them. Taiyang felt something drop in the pit of his stomach as dread filled his system.

"What in the great name of the holy Oum am I looking at?" Taiyang said, nervousness in his tone.

Ozpin then sighed as he brought out THE scroll, and showed it to Taiyang who looked at it, and his eyes widened at the symbol. A burning rose.

He then watched the Headmaster open it, and hit the file titled "Vid Messages" and then began playing the message.

The image appeared and Taiyang's eyes widen slightly as he saw a woman who looked like his presumed dead love. One of them, really. Especially the eyes and hair color. He saw the woman take a breath as she looked a little unsure.

" _Ok...well, here goes_ _nothing_." the woman said, _"Hello, dad. It's me. Ruby. I'm sorry. Sorry that I'm probably never going to properly apologize for this. Sorry that it all ended this way_." Said the Elder Ruby, while Taiyang blinked, " _Now before you go into denial, and start ranting like a moron, I will tell you something that only you and I know. The time we found Zwei, and how I begged you to let me keep him. Not even you can resist the power of the Sad Puppy Dog Silver Eyes_ ,"

Taiyang said nothing as he remembered that day well, and the only other person to know about it was Yang, who would never stop laughing her ass off at the story.

" _Now that that's out of the way, I'm going to have to be blunt. You need to protect_ _Yang_." Taiyang blinked at that, _"The leader of the White fang nearly killed her during the Vytal Festival, which will take place in the fall. She got payback...although she didn't exactly live enough to enjoy it_. _She managed to get him, when he was busy torturing Blake, a friend of ours. His sword slashed at the Ember Celica slicing off part of the guard._ "

Taiyang then looked at the fragment on the table. It didn't look like part of Ember Celica. It WAS part of Ember Celica.

" _Adam Taurus destroyed it. Right before Yang killed him."_ Ruby's face then turned deadly, _"I might not enjoy people in pain, but some out there just deserve it."_

He then saw Ruby pause as she begin to tear up, before speaking again " _I'm gonna make things right again, Dad. I'm gonna change everything. Though I might not make it through this, I'm not afraid to die...it's the least I can do, for failing everyone_ ," she said sadly, _"If you haven't watched my first video message, I suggest you do to get the full story. I will never forget all you taught me and Yang while growing up, and...*sniff* well, I hope you understand what I'm about to do. I guess I'm more like mom that way, hehehe. Anyway, I gotta go now, bye dad..._ "

With that the recording ending.

"Where the hell did you-" Qrow grabbed Taiyang and forced his head to look at the medical pod. Inside it was the woman in question. A near clone of Summer, although this was not her. The voice, while similar, was too close to Ruby's.

"She came back via an Atlesian time traveling device." Qrow laid out, as he sighed "Apparently, time travel isn't relegated to science fiction anymore. Ironwood's increasing R&D work, just in case something bad does happen at the Vytal Tournament. After she arrived here, she just swooped in and attacked a bunch of Grimm-worshipers. Nearly killed them too, if it weren't for-" The Elder Rose began coughing violently again, as if on cue. "Ok, THAT is getting both disturbing and fucking annoying."

Taiyang immediately got frantic as the doctor inside the tent gave her an injection of something and she immediately calmed down, and a golden glow afterward appeared, shocking him.

"What the FUCK did I saw just now!?" Taiyang shouted, "What's wrong with her!?"

"Some kinda Grimm infection. It's slowly killing her." Qrow said, making Taiyang pale in worry, "That dust and the Maiden powers-"

"Wait that's real?" the said blonde interrupted, prompting a glare from Qrow.

"Yes, that's real. Shut up." Taiyang did so. "The dust and the powers are holding it back. Though it's just barely. Eventually, it's going to kill her,"

That made Taiyang become increasingly terrified, as Qrow continued.

"And if that's not bad enough, she's been having nightmares ever since she went into a coma." he said, and held up his hand before the instructor from Signal could ask, "Don't ask me how that works. I'm not into that medical mumbo jumbo,"

Taiyang looked back toward the Elder Ruby... HIS Ruby.

No matter when or where she came from. Past, future, or present, she was still his daughter. He closed his eyes tightly as he clenched his fists.

"Can't you get it out of her?" he ground out, looking at the two other men while Ozpin sadly shook his head.

"Not without unintentionally hurting her more, or...worse," he said, "But I promise we're doing all we can to help her,"

The father of Ruby and Yang looked back at his daughter, helplessness and sadness showing in his eyes.

"Can I just...talk to her?" he asked, while Qrow and Ozpin nodded.

"Well, go ahead." the former said, "Grimm infection's not contagious, as far as we know."

Without further hesitation, Taiyang entered the isolation tent, where Ruby was laying and sat down in the chair that was offered. He was quiet for a moment before he began to speak to her.

"Ruby...It's me. Dad." he said as he reached out and grasped her hand, "I don't know if you can hear me, hell this entire situation is INSANE. I mean, time travel? Maiden powers? I was happier with just the Grimm being our only pain in the ass."

He then gave her hand a comforting squeeze.

"But...I'll be here for you. I'll do whatever it takes to get you well again."

He then began to gently caress her hair, "Just, try to hang in there...okay?"

Ruby then began to whimper as tears escaped from her closed eyes. But then to the shock of everyone, she managed to gasp out one word.

"...D-Daddy...,"

Taiyang felt tears stinging his eyes as he gave his daughter a kiss on her forehead.

"That's the first thing she said since she came here," Taiyang looked to the entrance, seeing Ozpin, sans mug. "She's been completely unresponsive, until now."

Taiyang then looked at the older version of his daughter...of course, he could say his now third daughter. His eyes were hard as he silently vowed to beat the crap out of the people who did this to her.

"I'm staying here." Taiyang said resolutely, "She's my daughter, future or not."

Ozpin pulled out his scroll.

"I figured as much." The Headmaster said, "Amber is staying here to protect her fellow Maiden, but I need Qrow in the field. As such-"

"Just sign the damn transfer papers already." Taiyang said impatiently. Ozpin smiled slightly as he shook his head at the over-protectiveness of the father.

"Impatient as always, Mr. Xiao Long." he said, while Taiyang's eyes hardened, even though there are a few tears.

"When it concerns my family, I don't have the time for patience." Taiyang said, "I'm gonna make sure I'm here to protect my girls! All THREE of them! And whoever did this is gonna wish they were never born if they ever cross my path."

Ozpin smiled, as he nodded and finished the transfer order "Welcome to Beacon Academy...Professor Xiao Long,"

* * *

The Grimm Lands were the original birthplace of the monsters that bore it's name. It is a wasteland where few humans go, and even fewer come out alive.

In pools of a black tar like substance, new Grimm are being born every minute.

It is in this domain, where a certain Grimm Queen was NOT happy with a certain would've been Fallen Maiden, one damn bit. She sent her lieutenant to steal the powers of the Fall Maiden so that they can be used in the future war of annihilation to come. But instead, they'd been ambushed by a woman, who was very skilled, and wielded the EXACT same powers as the girl Amber used. Of course they managed to restrain her, but unfortunately, one of Ozpins damn cohorts got to them before they can extract the maiden powers. So, yeah, she was NOT happy at all.

"I gave you one mission, Cinder." the Grimm like woman said calmly, as the woman in question fidgeted. "Claim the Fall Maiden's power. Yet you _failed_."

"I ran into difficulties-" Cinder tried to explain only to be cut off.

"One girl. Another Maiden." Salem growled, her red eyes glowing menacingly, "Another _Fall Maiden_ , which makes no sense. There is only supposed to be only one Cinder, ONE."

Cinder had the nerve to feel embarrassed. Not only being defeated and humiliated, but also greatly scarred.

"I saw her use the same powers as the Fall Maiden, Amber. She blocked the Dust bullets from Emerald's pistols," she said, before flinching at the Grimm Queen's glare, as she turned her head toward her. "She...she even knew who I was...and she knows about you."

Salem paused, her eyebrows rose slightly. "What? Only Ozpin and his ilk know of me."

"But she mentioned you! She said that after she killed me, you were next! And she-" Cinder began hyperventilating. This was more and more common nowadays. Her panic-attacks made her relive the debacle.

While it would look entertaining for some for others, it was not so much for Cinder.

"Get a grip of yourself, Cinder!" She ordered, and that somehow managed to get the once confident woman to stop. "Despite this setback, it does not stop the plan to bring fear and chaos to Remnant. We just have to use the White Fang more than usual." She then looked at Cinder, "However, this girl intrigues me. You said she had Silver Eyes, correct?"

Cinder nodded at that. "...Yes. I can never forget."

She watched the Grimm Queen's eyes narrow at that. "Then that adds another priority objective for you to accomplish, then," she said, causing Cinder to blink.

"Salem?" she said.

"You are to search for the girl during the time the 40th Vytal Festival is about to begin." Salem stated, "You WILL find her. Claim the Maiden Powers from her, but you WILL bring her to me, ALIVE! Is that clear?"

"Yes, ma'am!" She may have feared Ruby, but she feared Salem, more so.

She had NO idea what the queen would do to her. And to be honest, she didn't WANT to know.

So she would obey, even if it killed her. Which it probably would.

"Good, you can go now," she said, and Cinder nodded and began to leave, "Oh, and Cinder...if you shall fail me again, I will NOT be as merciful. Understand?"

Cinder didn't say anything, but quickly nodded as she hurried out, not wanting to give Salem an excuse to change her mind.

* * *

 _ **Patriot-112: And here's the second chapter. I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. Though it might not have been as long as the prologue, I still managed to make this as long and entertaining as possible. Now, before I go, please leave a NICE and CONSTRUCTIVE review, don't be a Troll, and have a good day of your lives. Later!**_


	3. Chapter 2: The Spartan Champion

_**AN: You all know the disclaimer, I'm not gonna repeat it every single chapter of this fic. Also, Arkos shipping in this, so if you don't like rushed relationships, please leave immediately.**_

 _ **Also, sorry this chapter is so short, but hopefully we'll be able to keep our chapters ABOVE 3,000 words. Now enough of that on with the chapter!**_

* * *

 _ **Chapter Two:**_

 _ **The Spartan Champion**_

* * *

 _ **Beacon Academy, Ozpin's Office**_

 _ **Kingdom of Vale**_

* * *

It had been at least a month and a half, since Taiyang had learned about his youngest daughter's future self and the hell she had to endure, and true to his word, he stayed at Beacon in order to protect her, under the guise of a Combat Instructor, much to the daughters of said man's surprise. It has also been that long since Ruby Rose, along with her future Team, along with the future Team JNPR were formed after their initiation. The teamwork that both teams showed was exemplary, even though there was minor bickering between Weiss and Ruby, and some embarrassing moments from the Young Arc, though he made up for it for his quick tactical thinking.

At this time, Ozpin had also learned of Jaune's falsified transcripts, but did nothing about it: the boy was clearly willing to do whatever it took, so why stop him?

That brought up the OTHER parts of team JNPR: namely, Pyrrha Nikos. Ozpin had been avoiding this for weeks, but he had little choice now. The incident at Forever Fall had pushed this little meeting forward, and now it was finally going to happen, though how the said girl would react was anyone's guess.

Speaking of said girl, he heard the elevator ding at it's arrival, and the door opened as the said redhead entered. She was clad in her signature gold and bronze Huntress armor, while her respective weapons were back in her locker.

"You wanted to see me Headmaster?" she asked politely, as she stood in front of his desk.

"Yes." Ozpin said, and motioned to the chair in front of the desk, asking her to sit down, which she did, "I heard your team was involved with a Grimm attack at Forever Falls."

"Yes, Jaune fought off an Ursa Major." Pyrrha said, while Ozpin took note of the slight pink on her cheeks, "He saved Cardin, the team leader of team CRDL. Even though he didn't deserve it."

"While they are bullies and their motivations are...questionable, to say the least, no one deserves to get killed by a Grimm." he said, while Pyrrha nodded, knowing the headmaster was right.

"Yes, I understand." Pyrrha said, "After that incident, me and Jaune are now sparring in order to sharpen his skills. He has a long way to go, but he has a good heart and is determined,"

Ozpin nodded at that, while smiling.

"That is good. It is a excellent trait to help others who are struggling, even those who used...fake transcripts to get into Beacon," Pyrrha's eyes widened in worry at that, but before she could say anything Ozpin raised a hand to calm her fears, "Don't worry, I don't intend to expel him. With someone of your caliber training him I have no doubt he'll be a great Huntsman like the rest of his family."

Pyrrha blinked at that. She was worried the boy who actually treated her like a normal person instead of a celebrity (and who is also the target of her growing affections) would be expelled. But thankfully that won't happen.

"Th..Thank you, Headmaster!" She said, happily.

Ozpin sighed. This girl was his second choice to replace Amber, if necessary. But now with Ruby interfering, that was unneeded. But, of course, with Ruby's condition, that could change fast.

"Headmaster, is something wrong?" he heard Pyrrha say in concern.

The Headmaster looked at the Mistralian champion, and the girl blinked at the solemn expression on the old man's face. Said Headmaster knew this was the right moment, and it was time to take the plunge.

"Tell me, Miss Nikos. Have you ever heard of...time travel?" He said, making the Mistralian blink in surprise.

"I...well, yes, except in sci-fi films and comic books." Pyrrha said honestly, "Some scientists say it's probable, while others say it's impossible."

The reason it couldn't be proven was due to the laws of physics and aerodynamics. There was an absolute speed limit to things in atmosphere, and Remnant had yet to actually get into space due to their reliance on dust and its' need for oxygen to be used.

After Pyrrha answered, she saw the Headmaster nod, while still keeping his current expression.

"...Why?" She said, as Ozpin sighed again.

"What if I were to tell you...that it's actually, _truly_ , possible," he said, making Pyrrha blink as her brows raised slightly. That caught her off guard.

"I...I beg your pardon?" she said, just as the elevator door opened again.

In walked two of her teachers, Glynda Goodwitch and Taiyang Xiao Long a man with graying black hair and red eyes (which looked like Yang's when she got mad) General James Ironwood of the Atlesian Armed Forces and another girl right around her age.

Pyrrha, feeling a sense of dread down her spine stood up from her chair as she looked from Ozpin to the new arrivals.

"W-What's going on?" she said cautiously, and Glynda was the one to move forward, holding her hands out to calm her down.

"It's alright Miss Nikos, there's no need to be alarmed," the professor placated, "Just hear us out,"

Pyrrha's expression didn't change as she turned back to the Headmaster who pulled out the scroll held by the Elder Ruby. When the Mistralian saw it, her eyes widened at seeing the Black Burning Rose on the device, as well the faded colors and small scratches and minor dings.

"T-That's...that's Ruby's scroll," she managed to say.

Which was impossible: Ruby had her scroll. She saw it prior to coming up to Ozpin's office.

"Please take a seat, Miss Nikos," Ozpin said, "What you are about to see, will definitely make you see Miss Rose in a whole different light."

Pyrrha was now greatly concerned and almost afraid of what it was about Ruby that could warrant her being here. But, deciding to just go with and get the answers, she sat back down into the chair.

The headmaster activated the holographic display, playing a vid file.

What looked like an older Ruby appeared on one of the screens. " _This is Ruby Rose. I'm twenty five years old, born in the Kingdom of Vale, and a former Huntress student from Beacon Academy. If you're watching this, and you're not me, then something must've gone wrong_."

The Spartan stood wide-eyed as she watched the vid recording continue. Her expressions changing from shock, horror, and finally sadness at what she was hearing. The girl, who she only knew for over a month, but was already a close friend, had endured ten years of hell... and even witnessed her death at the hands of a woman named Cinder Fall. She was also horrified at the details of a future war with the source of all Grimm, a grimm-like woman named Salem. When the message ended she was undoubtedly in tears.

"There are personal messages for everyone." Ozpin said, making Pyrrha look at him, "Jaune Arc, Lie Ren, Nora Valkyrie... You were actually at the top of the list."

"M-Me?"

"Except for Team RWBY, you were at the top of the list." Glynda clarified, while the Mistral Tournament Champion was surprised at that. "And as we can't exactly trust Miss Rose yet to keep a secret, you were our first choice."

"Your future death hit the Elder Ruby hard," the mystery man said with a sad sigh, "She claimed it was her biggest regret that she couldn't save you in time."

Pyrrha by now, was beginning to feel more and more like a little child instead of the famous champion she trained to be, as she turned to the Scroll and saw her name at the top, right above Team RWBY's. Hesitantly, she reached out and pressed the name on the scroll.

The vid started playing, displaying Ruby carefully holding a golden, emerald-jeweled circlet. The very one she wore. "H _-Hello, Pyrrha. Fuck, nine years and it still isn't easy. People would probably call me crazy for doing this. But, unfortunately no one's around to say anything, so...yeah_."

The Spartan winced. " _Point is, this message is for you. Mainly, to say that... I'm sorry...that I couldn't get to you in time."_ she said, tears beginning to show _, "When Jaune called us on Weiss' Scroll, begging us to save you, me and her rushed to the CCT in order to get to you. However, the Grimm kept delaying us as much as possible, until Weiss used her glyphs so I could run up the side of the tower... but, I was two seconds too late. I arrived, just in time, only to see that fucking whore shoot an arrow through your chest, and to add insult to injury...she...she burned your body to ash, leaving only this behind,"_

Pyrrha actually paled at that. Her hand unconsciously grasping over her chest where her heart is.

 _"All went downhill from there_." Ruby continued, " _What was left of your team joined me to hunt Cinder down. We didn't get much, only informing your mother of what happened. She just...stopped, and told us to leave. We didn't hear anything from the house after that_."

Pyrrha began to have tears coming out of her eyes at the possibility of what happened to her mother. After her father died, she and her mother only had each other, and the possibility of her mother having committed suicide out of grief scared her.

" _But, I think that aside from me, Jaune was hit the hardest. He hated himself for being, what he believed, so weak and unable to save you. He told me that you...well, you actually kissed him before you shoved him into the rocket locker to get him safely away._ " That last sentence made Pyrrha's face go red for a moment before she managed to get it under it control, " _He said, that kiss actually made him realize the feelings he had for you, ever since you two partnered up in the Emerald Forest during Initiation, and when you unlocked his aura, forming a permanent bond between you two. He regretted that even though the two of you realized you loved each other, it was only that one moment you two had together_."

She then held up the golden headpiece. " _He held onto this after my uncle found it, and gave it to him. His way of remembering you. After Cinder killed him, because he protected me... I kept it._ "

Pyrrha's eyes widen in horror at the thought of the blonde Arc dying. Someone who actually treated her like a normal person instead of the Great Pyrrha Nikos, the Invincible Girl. Her thoughts were interrupted as Ruby kept speaking.

" _He told me once, that you asked him if he believed in destiny, he said that at the time, he honestly didn't have a_ _clue_ ," the sad smile never left her face, " _B_ _ut after you died, he said that he now did, and that she was a total cold bitch. Well, if you're seeing this, destiny's probably dying of exsanguination now_."

The mystery man and Taiyang chuckled. The current Ruby didn't even know what that word meant.

Pyrrha couldn't help but giggle at that, despite how dark it sounded.

" _Ya know, come to think of it. As long as I can remember during our time at Beacon, I saw you, aside from my own team members and Yang, as another amazing big sister,_ " she said, making the redhead's eyes widen in surprise.

" _You were always kind, patient, smart, and strong. Of course, most of us didn't noticed how lonely you actually felt, until Jaune helped you by cheering you up at the dance. I won't spoil that, by the way."_ that caused Pyrrha to blink, curious what Jaune did to make her happy.

 _"Also, I just want to say that no matter what other people say about you, remember that you will always be one of my best friends Pyrrha_ ," the scythe wielder said, leaving Pyrrha surprised, as well as touched.

The Elder Ruby sighed as she rubbed her thumb on the circlet, " _I have to go now. But before I do, here's some advice._.."

Everyone then watched as Ruby's face turned deadpan.

" _For the love of Oum girl, just tell the dense idiot you love him and kiss him already._..," she drawled out and that got quite the interesting reactions.

Pyrrha blushed, the two men (Qrow and Taiyang) laughed, Ozpin, Glynda and Ironwood facepalmed and the girl (Amber, Pyrrha thought Ruby called her) cooed in delight.

Everyone's a romantic it seemed. Of course, for Ozpin, the only exceptions are Cinder and Salem.

After the vid ended and everyone calmed down, the one question they were expecting to come out of Pyrrha's mouth, did.

"Did...did she survive?" Pyrrha said suddenly, gaining everyone's attention, "Is she...a-alive?"

Ozpin sighed as he stood up.

"Come with us, Miss Nikos" he said, and with slight hesitation, the Spartan did exactly that.

* * *

The elevator door opened, as Ozpin, Ironwood, Glynda, Amber and Taiyang stepped out, with Pyrrha in tow. The mystery man, who had introduced himself as Qrow, had to leave to scout out the coordinates Ruby left for them, as well as look for Cinder. The group walked out, as Pyrrha looked around her.

"What is this place?" she asked as she looked around the rather large cavernous room.

"This place is used to protect the Maidens when they're gravely injured. We've modernized it over the years, but..." Ozpin guided her to the isolation pod, where the Elder Ruby laid, nigh comatose. Pyrrha gasped, placing her hands over her mouth as she looked at the state of her friend. Her skin was deathly pale, while her breathing was somewhat shallow and erratic, an OT (Oxygen Therapy) mask was secured on her face.

"Oh Oum...," Pyrrha gasped out as she continued to look at Ruby's unconcious form.

"The only reaction we've gotten was from her was when Taiyang spoke to her, and that was it." Glynda said, "She's remained like that ever since."

Pyrrha began to walk toward the bed, her heart wrenching at the condition the tough young girl she knew, be reduced to this. As soon as she reached the side of the bed, she knelt down as she slowly and carefully took Ruby's hand into hers, while placing the other on her fellow redheads hair.

Ruby seemed to respond, pressing her head into her hand. Pyrrha sniffed a bit as she began to speak to her.

"Ruby..." Pyrrha began to speak, "It's me...Pyrrha, I don't know if you can hear me, but please know... that I forgive you. I don't have the right to, because there was really nothing to forgive."

She began caressing Ruby's hair, which the said Reaper was now nuzzling into.

"Thank you for doing this. And I'll be the older sister you can be proud of." she finished and watched as Ruby finally smiled, prompting Pyrrha to follow suit. She then stood over her and placed a sisterly kiss on her forehead. Before she pulled away, she heard her speak.

"...T-thank...you...sis...," Ruby gasped out, causing tears to form in the Spartan woman's eyes.

"You're welcome...," she said, before giving a final stroke of Ruby's now long hair, before standing up, wiping the tears from her eyes. As she walked out of the unit, something caught her eye, making her turn to the table and spotting all the Elder Ruby's belongings.

All of the fragments of her teammates' destroyed personal weapons made Pyrrha wince. Ruby was torturing herself keeping those around.

"I...trust you can keep this to yourself?" Ozpin said, which Pyrrha responded by giving him the 'look'.

"Headmaster, beyond the fact that no one would BELIEVE me, I could be admitted to an asylum if I talked about this." She said firmly, and Ozpin nodded in agreement at that.

Afterall it had happened for less, and that was saying a lot.

"Of course," he said, as he watched Pyrrha walk over to the table, looking at everything, before laying her eyes on the improved Crescent Rose, and the sword beside it. She carefully reached for the sword and picked it, surprised at how light it was.

"My reaction myself when I picked that thing up," Taiyang said, as he approached, "From what I can tell, Ruby forged it from strong metal, possibly Titanium."

She drew the sword out of it's scabbard, and was surprised by the pure clean black coloration, and twirled the blade around once or twice before noticing a slight vibration in the hilt. Pyrrha used her semblance to figure out why it did so, and was surprised upon discovering that the weapon was a vibro-blade.

Properly titled a High Frequency Vibration Bladed Weapon, a vibro-blade was designed to vibrate at incredibly high frequencies, so much so that the molecules of the target were parted more cleanly, providing less interference.

It was the closest Remnant had gotten to a true mono-molecular edge, which literally cuts through anything, including diamonds, emeralds and rubies. It could even cut through Aura, thus why these weapons were restricted for military use.

Pyrrha did not miss the symbolism. She then noticed writing etched into the blade: _Onyx Justice_.

"She definitely does get better as a huntress," she said, smiling sadly before placing the blade back in it's scabbard, and back down on the table. "And it took ten years of misery for her to reach it,"

She then looked at the exact circlet that the elder Ruby carried with her...her circlet, she cautiously reached over and picked it up. It weighed exactly the same. Same dimensions, same design. It was definitely hers. And the poor woman now lying on the bed not too far away, had carried this for a long amount of time. She could even see that she took extremely well care of it. With shaking hands she gently placed it down.

She then felt a hand on her shoulder, as Ozpin gave her a solemn smile.

"Hopefully, with yours and the others help, she will heal from the wounds she suffered," he said, and he meant both physically and mentally. Pyrrha nodded at that, and Ozpin told her she was free to go back to her team and was allowed to come back and visit Ruby at any time, which said Champion planned on doing. She nodded and headed for the elevator before the Headmaster spoke.

"Oh, and before I forget. You may not tell the others what you saw here, but you WILL tell Mr. Arc how you feel," Ozpin said, and that caused Pyrrha's face to turn bright red as her hair, before she hurriedly left the vault.

The old man looked to everyone else as they either sighed or facepalmed.

Amber looked to Ozpin. "Was that necessary?"

Said professor gave a slight smirk,"Yes. I enjoy romantic relationships."

* * *

Pyrrha was hiding in a corner as she couldn't get what Ozpin said out of her head.

He HAD to pull that out.

Pyrrha wasn't even sure if she could tell him; until now, she'd never been in serious a relationship, before!

Or had friends.

She didn't know if she had it in her to even DO what Elder Ruby said her counterpart did. Right now she felt like hiding in a hole for a good while until she get her act back together again. However, it appears that Elder Ruby was right, yet again, that Destiny was a total cold bitch.

Proven true as Jaune Arc peered into her hiding place. Said Champion's eyes widened, cursing mentally that she had been found so fast.

"Hey Pyrrha? Are you ok?" he said in concern.

The redhead blushed as she shook her head vigorously, making the young blonde knight even more worried for his partner, and friend.

"You wanna talk about it? Maybe I can help," the blonde Arc said, giving a comforting smile.

"N-No. No, I can't." Pyrrha said, and Jaune blinked and looked to question her on what was going with her.

"Pyrrha, what's wrong?" he asked and decided to sit next to her, making the young redheads heart beat just a little faster than the normal rate.

She knew she had to think of something, and quick.

"...A...A friend of the family, who is like a sister to me is in the hospital," she half lied, not wanting to tell the whole truth.

Jaune's eyes widen at that.

"Is she alright?" Jaune asked worriedly, while Pyrrha shook her head.

"She's...bedridden. She had an encounter with Grimm and got hurt, really badly," she said.

Jaune placed his hand on the girl's shoulder, making her eyes widen slightly.

"You've seen her already?" Jaune asked, and it took Pyrrha a moment before she nodded.

"Y-yes," she said, "She was able to respond to me when I touched her. The doctor says it's a touch and go,"

Jaune sighed as he sat down next to Pyrrha, "Well, what can I do to help?" he asked making the Spartan turn to him, blinking, "I may not be a doctor, but, I can help in another way. So, what can I do?"

Pyrrha was surprised by the caring tone in Jaune's voice, and Ruby's words were repeating in her head. Though, of course, she'll wait till the right time, and not rush into it. She smiled slightly as she closed her eyes.

"Just stay here with me for a little bit," she said, and the knight nodded, smiling as the two sat in their corner.

* * *

With Team RWBY, they were making their way back to their dorm, after a day of hard school work. Suddenly, the young team leader stopped as she blinked in confusion.

"Hey Rubes," said Yang, concern on her face as he saw her stop, as she placed a hand on her shoulder. "You okay?"

Ruby nodded at her sister's concern, "Yeah...though for some reason, I don't know why, I feel as if I accomplished something...something important," she said, slightly unsure, but she felt in her gut that this was actually a good unsure, not a bad one.

The other members of Team RWBY blinked at that, just before the Ice Queen spoke up.

"How can you accomplish anything important?" she said, rich girl snootiness coming into play, "The only thing you can accomplish is by being a complete dolt,"

Ruby took offense to that.

"At least I know how to build my weapon, rich girl," she shot back, causing the Schnee heiress to adopt an offended look, while Yang snickered at her little sister's comeback, while Blake gave a slight smirk.

The rest of the day went on, as two members of Team RWBY went on to argue through the rest of the day.

* * *

 _ **Patriot-112: Well, that was an interesting ending to this wouldn't you agree?**_

 _ **Ron The True Fan: RAMPAGE!**_

 _ **Patriot-112: ...I'll... take that as a yes. So yeah, me and Ron are Arkos fans, and if you guys even think we rushed this too fast, then go somewhere else. Otherwise, Ron here will just go Trevor on you.**_

 _ **Ron the True Fan: (Readies shotgun) ...Just say one thing. ONE thing!**_

 _ **Patriot-112: Okay, okay, that's enough... oh look at that, a Troll- (BAM!) RON!**_

 _ **Ron the True Fan: *Shrugs* I hate trolls.**_

 _ **Patriot-112: *Facepalm* Why do I bother? Anyway, be sure to leave a review. And remember, constructive criticism, no trolling, coward guest reviews will be erased. Until then, later!**_


	4. Chapter 3: Delirium

_**AN : This is fanfiction. Lawyers, go fuck yourselves. Rooster Teeth, if you read this and like it, hire us.**_

* * *

 _ **Chapter Three:**_

 _ **Delirium**_

* * *

 _ **Elder Ruby's mind**_

* * *

She remembered this courtyard well. Back before it became the crumbling ruins it was now. All the plant life that once grew and thrived around the courtyard, now dead, the silvery limestone, crumbled and turned to black, a low mist floating through as phantoms of the past walked by her as if she wasn't there. All the friends she's made here, all the Student Teams, the teachers, familiar faces, every single one of them...all gone.

Now, there was nothing left but ash.

Ruby could still remember that day. That day, where everything started, the Beginning of the End. Where she saw two of her closest friends die. One due to manipulation, the other out of duty, guilt, and of atonement for said tragedy.

And now... this place only served to torture her, to remind her of the failure that she now saw herself. And one of those sessions was happening right now.

"You killed us!" Ruby swung the scythe through a phantom of Ren, firing the modified weapon in a scream-filled rage.

"Then she saw a phantom of Pyrrha, Cinder's arrow through her chest.

"Why did you let me die, Ruby?" the phantom of the Spartan girl said as tears leaked from her eyes.

"SHUT UP! YOU'RE NOT PYRRHA!" Ruby screamed before using her sword, which she named Onyx Justice to slice the Phantom's head off.

"You failed her, just as you failed all of us!" said another Phantom, this time of Jaune. Half of his face burnt off, and one of Cinder's glass swords stuck through him.

"You're not them! YOU'RE NOT THEM!" she shouted again swinging Crescent Rose, cleaving the Jaune phantom in two.

"Why?" Ruby froze. She turned around to see Weiss, covered in third-degree burns. "Why did you let me go? You knew I couldn't fight Cinder."

"No...NO! YOU'RE NOT WEISS!" the Grimm Reaper shouted.

"THEN WHO AM I, RUBY?!" the phantom shouted back.

"I KNOW YOU'RE NOT HER!" Ruby screamed again as she fired a round point blank into the phantom's head sending it flying back before it dissipated.

"Why did you leave me behind?" Ruby snapped around and saw her sister Yang, her arm missing and a stab wound in her chest, the phantom had tears in her eyes. "Why didn't you wait till I got better? WHY DID YOU DESERT ME!?"

"SHUT UP! YOU AREN'T REAL!"

"You sent us to our deaths." Ruby decapitated the armless and mostly headless Blake, before she ran.

Very, VERY far away.

But, as Ruby will discover, running away ain't going to solve anything inside your own head. You either had to face the problem, or let it swallow you up. Unfortunately, she was too scared to do the former, and the guilt she was suffering made her an easy target for the latter.

She then ran into the CCT, climbing up the ruined tower frantically trying to get away, but when she reached the top, she saw that moment again. That one moment where Cinder shot an arrow through Pyrrha's heart, Cinder smiling cruelly as she sauntered up and burned her to ash.

Ruby's eyes widen in horror and grief, as she watched the glowing ashes fly away.

 _'No...NOOO!'_

Then the phantom of Cinder turned to her. Smug smirk plastered on her face.

"Late again, little red," the phantom mocked, which set the new Fall Maiden off.

"SHUT UP YOU BITCH!" Ruby shouted, silver eyes glowing with anger, "Even if if you aren't real I already stopped you from getting the Fall Maiden powers! You won't be able to kill her this time!"

The bitch only smirked.

"Does it matter?" she asked rhetorically, "You're a failure. You let them die. You sent them to their deaths."

In a blur of red, Ruby impaled Crescent Rose into the phantom's chest.

"Go fuck yourself!" the Reaper screamed as Cinder herself went aflame, just as she did when Ruby killed her in the other timeline.

Then, she felt something grasp her shoulders, making her freeze and her eyes wide with cold fright. The hands that held her, then began to caress her face, making her skin crawl. Then came the giggle, a giggle she never wanted to hear ever again, but still followed her no matter where she went.

"My poor, foolish little red hooded, silver eyed maiden," the female voice said, "So alone in the world, the last of every living person on Remnant. What would your dear mother think of you?"

Ruby's eyes widened in horror.

"NO!" she shouted desperately, "DO NOT MENTION HER!"

"Why not? No matter what you do...Everyone you care about, everyone you love..."

Ruby began breathing harder and harder as she began hyperventilating.

"They. Will. Still. DIE!"

Ruby's eyes began glowing with both the Silver Eyes and the power of the Fall Maiden as she gave one defiant scream at the Phantom.

"FUCK YOU! AND FUCK YOUR OUM DAMN THREATS BITCH!" With that she swung Crescent Rose with all her might and slashed at the Phantom of the Grimm bitch herself, before a white light enveloped her.

* * *

In the real world, Elder Ruby's eyes snapped open, just as the medical staff came to check on her.

"Shit! She's awake! Call Professor Ozpi-" the poor doctor didn't get to finish as he felt the front of his shirt get grabbed before he was thrown across the room. Soon the other medical came in to restrain her, as she ripped her OT mask off.

Ruby then began the 'bullet beating'.

This happens when Ruby uses her semblance to go to Mach 4.7, using kinetic energy to deliver blows that would shatter a large oak tree.

In short, the doctors were either dead or crippled, depending on the amount of force used, in a matter of milliseconds due to the speed of the blows.

The Atlas Guards heard what was happening and came in and attempted to restrain the female Huntress, only for themselves to be sent flying via super fast kicks. She then turned and saw her weapons and belongings on the table and went over, and grabbed everything before bolting to the elevator, just as one of the Guards, who was still conscious managed to hit a button on his vambrace before blacking out.

* * *

In Ozpin's office, Glynda was speaking with said Headmaster about the preparations for the upcoming Vytal Festival, and the arrival of the first of the exchange students, and also being properly prepared for the Grimm invasion. However, their thoughts were interrupted, when a loud klaxon alarm on Ozpin's desk started shrilling.

"What!?" Glynda said in shock as she and the man looked on as a map appeared of Beacon, and showed where the alarm came from. And their hearts sank.

The vault. And elder Ruby was loose.

Ozpin only had one thing to say for what he was seeing: "Oh, fuckery."

"That, Headmaster, is an understatement." Glynda drawled, "She's broken loose and probably has her weapons back! Do you have any idea what an unstable Maiden can do?!"

Ozpin looked at her with a 'are you serious?' expression.

"Right, stupid question," she said.

"Regardless, we need to get to her before she runs into anyone." Ozpin said, "She could possibly injure anyone severely... or worse. And let's not forget what will happen if anyone else, like her younger self, sees her,"

Glynda nodded as she left the office, not needing to know more. After she left, Ozpin sighed as he grabbed his personal Scroll, and called Taiyang's contact number.

* * *

Team CRDL were a powerhouse team, though were also a bunch of bullies while they were at it. Especially when it came to Faunus, like the rabbit eared Velvet Scarlatina.

But, unfortunately for them, they were about to run into their worst nightmare as a woman entered their view. With the red cloak, they mistook her for Ruby for a second.

While not wrong, they were going to regret being the first people she saw.

"Hey, isn't that the red hooded girl?" said Russel Thrush as they saw Elder Ruby, who was stumbling slightly.

"You sure? She looks a little taller and older than her, not to mention way cuter," said Dove Bronzewing.

The woman extended the scythe rifle, eyes glowing with silver light. This action made the boys go on edge, their eyes widening as they saw the woman bring out the staff weapon.

"Uh, Cardin?" said Sky Lark nervously, as he saw the woman begin to move toward them.

The Winchester heir had only one thing to say.

"RUN!"

It was perhaps the wisest choice the retard would ever make. Not that it would HELP.

Just because it's a good idea doesn't mean it'll WORK. And the Red Hooded Reaper proved that.

Using her semblance, Ruby sped after the bullies in a blur, catching Dove first as she planted her HEELED booted feet into his back, causing him to scream in agony, as he went flying. The other school bullies saw their buddy go down, but then they felt a clench in their stomachs as she then turned to them next.

"OH SHIT!" shouted Russel.

"Get to the cafeteria!" shouted Cardin as the three boys left their comrade behind.

The three rushed down the hall, screaming like girls, while the Elder Ruby was hot on their tail.

* * *

At the aforementioned food hall, which was mostly deserted except for eight students, a food fight that was about to break out was suddenly halted before it began, as the two teams involved heard the girlish screams.

"What was that?" Yang said with a raised eyebrow before the doors slammed open, admitting the team of bullies, who immediately slammed the door shut again.

"GET SOMETHING TO HOLD THE DOOR! SHE'S COMING!" Cardin shouted as Russel and Sky try to get one of the tables and use it as a makeshift barricade.

"What's up with them?" Weiss said.

"Probably ticked off somebody they shouldn't have," Blake said, having no sympathy for the bullies, before blinking as she noticed a member of CRDL missing. "Wait, where's Dove?"

"CRAZY LADY GOT HIM! BARRICADE THE DOOR!" Cardin shouted as he and the rest of Team CRDL shoved tables and chairs to make a makeshift barricade to seal themselves in.

THAT wasn't going to work.

The doors exploded, and Team CRDL went flying.

( **BGM: Archangel by Kevin Sherwood** )

"WHOA! CRAP!" Jaune shouted as the door was destroyed as the students took cover from the flying debris. When the explosion ended everyone looked as they watched the person who was trying to beat the living crap out of the bullies walk in, scythe rifle in hand, sword visible on her back, and looking absolutely PISSED.

Ruby's first and only words were easily understandable, as her eyes widened in shock, "...Mom?"

( **In disguise in the skies, Burns a fire in my eyes And I'm holding the world in my hand** )

The woman screamed, once her eyes landed on Blake and Weiss before launching herself at them.

( **So contorted and twisted, Condemned and submissive, When they kneel they'll know where I stand, Yeah)**

"Whoa!" The two of them, along with Yang and Ruby jumped out of the way, as the woman swung her scythe, barely missing them.

( **Rise again, [On my own], Now we are, [Coming home], It all ends, [Painfully and slow], I'll bring them down on my own, Yeah**.)

The woman's eyes darted left and right wildly, searching for her targets. Meanwhile with Team JNPR, Pyrrha's eyes widened in alarm.

The Elder Rose was awake. And clearly CRAZY, as she was trying to kill her own younger teammates, including her younger self.

( **First to go, [First to go] Last to know, [Last to know] Always the only one I control** )

The scythe made contact with Yang's Ember Celica, who blocked it in order to protect Ruby, making a long gash on the armored gauntlet.

"Whoa! Mom, why are you trying to kill us?!" Ruby shouted, but the woman didn't say anything except screaming as if in agony. "Mom! Stop!"

( **Lashing Out, [Lashing out], Giving in, [Giving in], Then letting go to begin again** )

"We got to help them!" Pyrrha said, as she got up.

"Pyrrha wait!" Jaune shouted to his partner as she headed toward the melee.

( **Letting go, Letting go now, Letting go, My mind's corrupt, Our souls corrode, It's how we'll all end up** )

The younger Ruby grabbed onto the elder, as she pleadingly looked at her.

"Mom, stop! Please!" She begged as tears fell from her eyes, "It's us! Yang and Ruby!"

The older woman twisted and turned till she threw Ruby off, snarling before a speartip came close to her face before she flipped back.

Pyrrha was armed. Thank Oum for rocket lockers!

On the other hand, it was the older Rose.

( **Burning down, Caving in, Die by fire and, Begin again** )

"Please stop this!" Pyrrha shouted "Don't make us hurt you!"

The rest of Team JNPR were also armed, as they along with Team RWBY encircled the woman. Who was looking more and more like a cornered animal.

( **What breaks my pride, Will break your skull, I bring the end, Just like an archangel** )

The elder Ruby jumped upwards, using the 50 cal rounds to boost her way up before vectoring towards the younger Ruby, fully intent on decapitating her.

A glyph stopped her long enough for Weiss to push Ruby out of the way, and all the blade impacted was Crocea Mors' shield.

( **All the ruptured existence, Disdain life persistence, The wheel won't be turning for long, No** )

"Hey! Calm down!" Jaune shouted, "Who are you!?"

Elder Ruby didn't say anything as she gave a hard swing with her scythe-rifle and knocked the knight away, thankfully Jaune's aura was very dense as he slammed against a pillar.

"Ow!"

( **All I need, [Carrion], Now I am, [Coming home], Running from, [I'm Becoming one], I'll bring you down on my own** )

The older Rose began swinging the weapon in wide arcs, snarling and screaming in rage and confusion. Ren nearly lost his head twice, Nora barely dodged a bullet to the head, and Yang's uniform was torn from the barbed tip of the staff.

Weiss had to use dust to freeze the older Ruby in place, but that didn't stop her.

It only delayed her.

( **Letting Go, Letting go now, Letting go, Now Pain erupts, and time is slowed, it's how we'll all end up** )

Elder Ruby broke out of the ice, trying once again to go after the younger Ruby. This time, she drew her HFV blade, something Pyrrha saw and immediately went into action as she used her semblance to snatch it away from her, and caught it by the handle as she brought it to her.

The elder Ruby looked back and snarled... before suddenly stopping and clutching at her chest. The scythe fell out of her hands, landing on the ground with a loud metallic clun,k and she fell to the ground. Her bloodshot eyes wide in pain as she began to cough violently

The Grimm infection was a pain in the ass, but it just saved their lives. Pyrrha's eyes widened as she remembered this from watching the vid.

' _Oh no. We don't have her medicinal dust_!' she thought worriedly as she began to make her way toward the older woman, only to see Yang preparing a punch to knock her out.

"Yang, DON'T! STOP!" she yelled but it was too late as Yang gave the Elder Ruby a good punch to the face, sending her back, and knocking her unconscious again. "NO!"

Pyrrha immediately ran over and began checking her over, becoming greatly concerned as she started coughing up blood.

The rest of Team JNPR along with Team RWBY immediately rush over, as they listened to Pyrrha trying to comfort the insane woman who just tried to kill them.

"Pyrrha, are you crazy?!" Yang said, an incredulous look on her face.

"She's gone through hell, and the only reason she attacked us is because her mind's not in a right state, Yang!" Pyrrha shouted, shocking everyone, "She probably thinks she's going through a nightmare right now!"

Everyone was silent at that, until the Younger Ruby spoke up.

"...And how would you know that?"

Pyrrha didn't say anything as she continued to try to help the Elder Ruby, that is until Goodwitch, Amber, and Taiyang arrived, which meant the Spartan girl didn't have to say anything. The other teams watched as Glynda gave the woman a syringe which made her stiffen before she calmed down, the golden glow coming afterward shocking everyone.

"W...what was that, just now?," Weiss said in shock.

Glynda groaned in annoyance, as she turned to older Xiao Long, and the current Fall Maiden.

"Amber, Taiyang, please take her back," she said, "The last thing we need is more people finding out about her."

The two nodded as they went over knelt next to the Elder Ruby and Pyrrha, the latter of whom was hesitant to leave her alone. Amber placed a hand on the Champion's shoulder, which made the girl look at her.

"It's alright, Pyrrha, "We're just taking her back to bed, that's all," she said, and Pyrrha, though reluctant, allowed them.

Glynda sighed as she looked at the pair of teams. "You are coming with me to the Headmaster's office. As much as I don't wish to...you need to be informed."

The group of students, sans Pyrrha, all had looks of confusion, as they proceeded to follow her, all the while, Ruby watched as her father helped Amber lift the woman who looked so much like her mother up into a bridal carry, all the while giving a sad sigh. Then he and Amber went off into another direction.

' _What's going on around here?_ '

* * *

Ozpin's head was in his hands, as he groaned at what he saw from the camera's view.

The older man was now mentally preparing himself to deal with Teams RWBY and JNPR, who had been assaulted by a delirious elder Ruby. Who had knocked out the medical staff, injured her guards, and after escaping from the vault, attacked Team CRDL, sending the whole team of bullies to the Medical Ward.

And now, the cat is out of the bag. Quite literally in fact.

The elevator door opened as Team RWBY was the first to be admitted in. And the headmaster of Beacon could see by the rips in the school uniforms that the Elder Ruby was not holding back.

"I see you have encountered Beacon's most well-kept secret." he said, and motioned to the condition of their attire, "And that she tried to kill you."

"Headmaster, with all due respect, what the HELL was that?" Yang said, being the first to speak, "Was...was that Summer Rose? Was that our mother?"

Ozpin could not blame Yang for her confusion.

The older Ruby was a fucking clone of Summer. Until he saw that message, he actually thought it WAS Summer for a moment.

Ozpin sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose to stave off the headache he was feeling. Then Team JNPR came in, and now he wouldn't have to tell everyone the same story over and over.

"I think, because I no longer have a choice, that this will answer your questions," he said, as he placed Elder Ruby's scroll on the hologram projector of his desk, which caught the attention of the others, especially the Younger Ruby. He then pressed the vid file, and thus, for the THIRD time, he had to listen to the heartbreaking story of the future.

The moment, the same woman who attacked them introduced herself, the reactions were obvious.

Ruby fainted. Yang was on the verge of hunting down and killing Adam Taurus. Weiss was tending to the fainted girl, wondering about her fate. Blake was ashamed of herself.

With Team JNPR, Jaune puked, although Pyrrha provided him with a vomit bag while she winced. Nora was silent, smile missing from her face. That never happened, so that's bad. Ren, meanwhile, was staring at the screen.

"So our future, is going to be us killed one by one, until it's only Ruby the only one left alive in a living hell?," Yang said through gritted teeth as she clenched her hands into fists while looking at her sister worriedly who is currently on the floor, Weiss trying to wake her up.

"In a matter of speaking, yes," Ozpin said, before a shadow fell over the blonde girl's eyes.

"I was planning to inform you all separately." Ozpin explained, "Ms Rose's elder self, on the other hand, seemed to have other ideas."

(More like the authors decided to be dicks [WHACK! DAMN IT!]) The point remains that Ozpin's schedule has been greatly advanced against his will.

"You mean almost KILLING us!?" Weiss said, as the younger began to come to, "If that Grimm Strangler thing hadn't happened we would all be dead, much as the Older Ruby explained how bad that disease is,"

"Be thankful it's not contagious," said Pyrrha suddenly as she finished helping Jaune recover from his puke fest, "As you heard from the vid file, it was caused when a Deathstalker got her with her stinger while her aura was down."

"That's not the point!" Weiss screamed "She tried to kill us!"

"Ms. Schnee, the young woman is suffering years of loss and possible dementia." Ozpin said with a rare narrowed gaze that caused the Schnee to flinch, "She probably believed you were little more then the fragments of her incredibly broken mind, and lashed out. All of you would've done the same thing."

Sad part is, Ozpin was right.

"Wait a minute. Pyrrha, back in the cafeteria you actually knew what was going on." Jaune managed to say while Pyrrha looked away, a bit ashamed.

"Professor Ozpin told me just a week after the Forever Fall fiasco," She said, "I was horrified at what would possibly happen to the Ruby we know now, and what DID happen to the older Ruby,"

Everyone looked at Pyrrha, with Jaune looking more than a little hurt that she kept this from him. Ruby looked at Pyrrha, finally understanding why the Mistralian was being more than little clingy to her, but in a good way. However, thankfully, Ozpin stepped in.

"She was actually at the top of the list." explained the headmaster, "Other than Team RWBY, but I decided to wait until you had settled in before informing you. I apparently didn't have a choice in the timing, however."

That was an understatement.

The others nodded, while Jaune, despite being hurt, gave Pyrrha's shoulder a gentle squeeze as a sign of forgiveness. Which Pyrrha responded by grabbing it and squeezing in return.

"That being said, most of the files are password-locked." Ozpin said as he brought up the file in question which showed the infamous Password box, "Apparently, it was an embarrassing nickname for Ruby that she got on her first day at Beacon."

Jaune immediately perked up at that, "Let me try," he said and walked toward the scroll and immediately put in the password. Ruby who by now had fully woken up from her faint, saw the password and groaned.

"You've got to be kidding me" she said.

'Crater Face'. WHY did life have to mock her for WEISS' mistake?

Because, seriously, that incident was not Ruby's fault. It was Weiss and Yang's fault. Mostly Weiss.

The file began to open, but then something happened they DID NOT expect.

"BOO, MOTHERFUCKERS!"

The group of teens and the professors jumped back in shock at what happened. In front of them appeared to be a hologram of a AK-130 combat robot, except it was colored green and transparent. They watched as the image began to stretch itself out.

"Geez, about fucking time you got me out of there Ruby!" it said snarkily in a female voice, "I've been stuck in that file for about three ... whole...months?"

It suddenly stopped talking before it looked at the gathered group of people. Then, all of a sudden it immediately grew seven feet tall, turning a burning angry red.

"WHERE THE HELL IS SHE?!" it screamed, "AND WHY ARE YOU PEOPLE STILL ALIVE?! We saw you all DIE!"

"Uh...time travel?" Jaune said, before the said hologram reverted back to it's smaller size.

"Oh, so that Atlas bullshit actually worked?" the hologram said, "Took Ruby and me months to figure that thing out."

Pyrrha raised a hand. "Uh...who are you, exactly?"

The AK turned to Pyrrha, "Well, since you asked so nicely Spartan girl, I'll tell you. My name is Leaf, personally designed and built Combat Artificial Intelligence of Ruby Rose. Been put on standby mode in that file for the past three months,"

The others were astonished by that.

"I...I made you?" Younger Ruby said.

"Well, not YOU." Leaf said as it's a matter of fact, "She's a lot older. And taller. And bigger, if you get what I mean."

The younger Ruby scowled at the AI.

Ruby was always uncomfortable with her bust, Yang's not making matters any easier. So Leaf was just outright mocking her. Ruby's response?

Basically a scream that translated as 'I'LL KILL YOU!'.

Ruby tried to run at the A.I. but was being held back by her team, barely, as she reached out for the little glowing green bitch.

"LET ME AT HER! LET ME AT HER!" she shouted, while Leaf formed an anime type face and gave her the eyelid pull while sticking her tongue out.

"Ladies, while this is mildly entertaining," Ozpin said, while his eye was twitching a bit, "we have other things to worry about. Like the elder Ms. Rose's condition?"

"Right, that poisonous shit." Leaf said with a sigh, before she gave her own smirk, "Well, assholes, I got something that will do the job: a formula for the cure! Problem is, we couldn't make it. World goin' to shit does that. Plus my Ruby being all...never mind that part,"

The younger Ruby blinked when she saw the dejected look on Leaf's face.

"Anyways, hold on and let me find me it!" she then disappeared, but the students could still hear her as the sounds of crashes, and curses were still being heard for the next half a minute.

"AH HA! Found it!" Leaf said as she reappeared again, this time what looked like a manila folder, "If any of you morons has the expertise in Dust mixing, please put your scroll next to me and I'll download the file!"

"You're a bitch, you know that?" Yang deadpanned.

"I'm not just ANYONE'S bitch." Leaf clarified, "I'm RUBY'S bitch."

Weiss simply put her scroll down, trying to ignore the crude AI. "I have access to almost unlimited dust reserves. I can get these made."

"Oh, so YOU'RE the girl Ruby-" the younger Rose finally broke free, and Leaf decided to shut up before the girl broke the scroll.

Which she would to keep her secret.

"Anyway..." Ozpin said before the situation got more out of hand, "As a result of this...incident, I have no choice but to... induct you,"

Everyone blinked at that.

"Induct us?" Yang said.

"Meaning you're being drafted, blondie," Leaf rudely remarked, while Yang glared at the hologram.

"Drafted into what?" Ren asked next.

"See, there's a bitch out there, named Cinder." Leaf said, "She works for the Grimm bitch queen, Salem."

She then groaned, "The plan for us? Kill the bitches so you ladies could live happily ever after. Unfortunately, things seem to have hit the fan!"

"She had an attack when she fought Cinder to stop her from taking my power." Said Amber, as she came in, with Taiyang following not following too far behind, "She did, however, seem to be toying with her until that happened."

Leaf groaned in annoyance, "Dammit, I TOLD her to wait!" she said, "But like always, her damn grief got in the way,"

Ozpin then sighed, "Regardless, you eight are now part of something big. And thus it's time we told you about...another secret,"

The students all blinked at that, while Amber sighed as the Headmaster began.

"Tell me children, have you ever heard of the story of the Four Maidens?"

Weiss haughtily laughed. "Who hasn't? It's a bedtime story told to every child on Remnant."

"As with all things, Ms. Schnee, there IS an element of truth to the tale." Taiyang said, "The Maidens do exist. Amber here is the current Fall Maiden. The older Ruby appears to be her true successor, as Cinder stole the powers from Amber in the...other future. Time travel is very confusing."

"Yes it can." Leaf said "But what he says is true, the Maidens did exist, but unfortunately there were a bunch of power hungry assholes out there who tried to steal the powers by killing the maidens, thus they were forced into hiding. Amber here, in the original timeline was attacked by the three stooges and they succeeded in getting half of her powers leaving her in a coma before Qrow showed up. Then months later, Ozpin here chose Pyrrha Nikos to be the next Fall Maiden in Amber's place...but it didn't happen that way,"

"Apparently, Cinder found out and put out two attacks: one to breach Vale's walls and allow the Grimm inside using the Mountain Glenn tunnels." Leaf continued, "That partially failed, but Atlas was given the job of security for the festival. This also backfired as the robots turned against us when Roman Torchwick used a computer virus designed by Cinder to gain control, and destroyed the Atlas Air Fleet. Then, Cinder used the White fang and Grimm to besiege the city. Apparently, we fell, and Cinder claimed the rest of Amber's powers."

The A.I. then sighed, "Ozpin then ordered Pyrrha and Jaune to go get help while he held the bitch in the vault in order to keep her from getting away, but with the Maiden powers , she was able to beat and send him discretely back to Salem's fortress of doom," she said, "And of course, you probably know the rest, if you watched the vid message she left."

"We did." Jaune said, "It sucked."

"Well, then I don't get to play storyteller!" Leaf smart mouthed, "Now where the hell's _my_ Ruby? Same place you kept Amber when she was fucked over by that bitch?"

"It seemed to be secure enough." Ozpin said, trying to placate the A.I. "We've increased security around the city."

"Really?" Leaf said sarcastically, "Ya think that's gonna fucking scare them? Salem fucked you over when you pulled that trick, Ozzy."

The old man raised an eyebrow at that.

"We're not making the same mistakes." The Headmaster tried to reassure, "We're not giving Torchwick a chance to stick a knife in our backs, and we've locked the CCT towers out. Only a select few have the passwords."

Leaf rolled her 'eyes'. "Please, Cinder is smarter than that. She could just find another way to get in. Powers or no powers, she is still dangerous. In fact, she's probably going after the other three maidens right now to compensate for failing to get Lady Autumn's" she laid out.

"Believe me, we're making sure they're kept safe." Ozpin assured, with Leaf not looking so convinced.

"Try _harder_." she ground out, "And keep _My_ Ruby doped up. In her state, she's suicidal, crazy and outright out of her mind. She'll probably try to kill whoever she runs into."

"She did." Ozpin said, "It's why Teams RWBY and JNPR are here."

"Well that's just fucking fantastic," Leaf groaned, "Well just make sure it doesn't happen again and be ready. Oh, and once General Ironwood comes back, with his entire fleet, tell him to be a bit more, I don't know, DISCREET!"

"I will inform him." Ozpin said in compliance, "Now, you're probably worried about Ruby-"

"FUCK YES!" Leaf yelled, cutting him off.

Ozpin was nonplused. "Very well, I'll take you to check on her. And I can trust you all to keep this a secret?"

Both teams nodded, all solemn and serious. Even Ruby and Nora.

"Good, then you're free to go back to your dorms," he said, and the teams left as Ozpin sighed standing back up. Before grabbing the scroll, causing Leaf's avatar form to disappear. The Headmaster looked outside at the city of Vale, knowing things were getting more hectic.

* * *

 **Patriot-112: Okay, this was a little hectic. But hope it was worth it. Anyway, to avoid confusion, the Ruby from the future will be known as , while the present Ruby will be known as . E = Elder, Y = Younger, you guys comprehend that? Good.**

 **Anyways, since this is the fourth chapter I set up. I decided to give you all a little challenge: With my permission, you can make your own version of this fic, with whatever character you want as the future survivor. The only rules are these: 1. No bashing of good characters, 2. Pairings are yours to decide.**

 **Now enough about that, please leave a review, and I will see you later!**


	5. Chapter 4: Fruits of Labor

_**AN: This is unnecessary. So I won't say anything besides 'lawyers, go fuck yourselves'.**_

 _ **Okay, this is where the butterfly effect headaches begin, so I ask that you be strong for this. Here we go!**_

* * *

 _ **Chapter Four**_

 _ **Fruits of Labor**_

* * *

 _ **Beacon Academy**_

 _ **Team RWBY Dorm**_

* * *

Ruby was tossing and turning in her sleep, while sweat dripped her face before she sat up and screamed in fright. Her eyes wide and bloodshot as she remembered what she just witnessed in her dreams.

All she saw was fire. And everyone she loved, dead.

She brought her knees up to her chest, as her bunk bed, swayed on its' ropes.

"You too, Rubes?"

She turned and saw her sister looking at her in concern. And she wasn't alone as both Weiss and Blake were also awake, both of them with dread on their faces. Ruby only sighed as she nodded her head, realizing they had the same dream.

"So much pain..." the young scythe wielder said, "How did she deal with it?"

"I don't think she did, sis." Yang concluded, "That attempt on our lives, yesterday was enough to signal that."

Blake then came up with the wisest decision that all of them needed to hear.

"Let's go outside...," Blake said, "...we're not going back to sleep. Not with those images inside our heads."

"I agree, I don't want to live through that again," Weiss and all the girls nodded in agreement and got dressed in their normal clothes and left their dorm, only to see Team JNPR out in the hall, all dressed in their clothes as well, and looking tired.

"You guys, too, huh?" said Jaune, and Ruby nodded.

"Yeah...," she said, "We're heading outside, wanna join us?"

"Sure." Ren said a little groggily, "Anything to get the nightmares out of my head."

"Want me to smash their legs, Ren?" Nora said, passionately.

The black and magenta-haired boy shook his head. "No, but thank you for the thought, Nora."

The eight left the dorms, still trying to shake the images out of their heads. They weren't succeeding.

"How'd she get back here, anyways?" Weiss said, gaining confused looks, "Back in time, I mean."

"Maybe she used her semblance to go really fast," Ruby said, resulting in everyone giving her the 'are you serious?' look.

"What?" she asked.

"There is a limit to how fast you can go, Ruby." Blake said, "You can only go twenty times the speed of sound before you literally begin tearing apart the air around you. After that, the atmosphere shreds itself to pieces. That, and you would have to be going the speed of light for any effective time delation-"

Ruby's eyes were swirling from the flood of information. "Too many words..."

"I think that's too deep for her to understand Blake," Ren said, "But still, like she said, it will be impossible for you to go back in time that way. There must've been another option to do so,"

"Look, let's focus on something else. Like our weapons!" Yang said, "Maybe Big Ruby thought up of some fancy upgrades for us!"

The younger Rose pouted at the name.

Poor girl was getting jealous of her older self's more mature body.

"We're gonna have to ask that rude A.I. though," Weiss groaned, "Her cursing nearly made me blow my own top yesterday,"

"Too late for me, though," Ruby grumbled, "If she insults me again, I'm gonna erase her myself."

That decided, they left for Ozpin's office, which they had semi-unlimited access to, thanks to joining to the 'society' that Ozpin had formed around himself.

Unfortunately, and unknown to them, they were being tailed.

* * *

Leaf was pissed. Her creator was several hundred feet underground while she was in the air! Ruby didn't deserve to be trapped down there, but unfortunately, it was probably for the best much to her disgruntlement. If she had a real body she go after that bitch Cinder and beat her within an inch of her life.

The elevator doors opened, and out came the younger morons and her creator's younger self.

"Well, if it isn't the younger fools." Leaf snarled, "What the fuck can I do for you?"

"Look, you hate us-" Jaune said, only for him to be silenced by Leaf's raised hand.

"Hate? Fuck no! Disappointed? VERY." she said, making everyone wince, "You all died so easily. Granted, it took an army of Grimm, but seriously, Ruby takes out armies every day!"

The teens all gaped at that, turning to Ruby who was looking more jealous, while also nervous.

"...Ok. We want to know if Ruby, the older one, made any upgrades to our weapons." Yang said, while Leaf was debating for a bit, before she sighed.

"Be happy that she loves you all. Including you Mini-Rube," the A.I. said, much to the Younger Ruby's surprise.

"Hey, she wants you to be strong and succeed where she failed," Leaf spoke plainly, "I'm not one to argue with her when it comes to people she wants to save."

The AI looked at them before suddenly blinking and turning a darker tint.

"Fuck me," she said, making the others blink at the tone the A.I. used before she suddenly exploded, "you were followed, you IDIOTS!"

The two teams eyes widened at that, before the elevator dinged it's arrival.

Yang deployed her Ember Celica gauntlets before throwing a punch.

Which was caught by a taller blonde with an outfit very akin to Yang's, sans inclusion of added plate armor to her arms and legs. And then the woman spoke, in a voice similarly, but much mature voice.

"Wow, I really DID have a bad temper when I was younger."

Yang's jaw dropped. Sans hair and eyes, she could swear she was looking at her mother wearing her outfit.

"Well, you WERE the hothead back in the day," now it was Weiss' turn as she saw what looked like her older sister, but with her hairstyle, and the uniform had a more feminine charm.

Then everyone's jaws went slack as they saw what just entered the room with them.

"WHAT. THE. FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU-!?" was the appropriate response for both Yang and Leaf.

One had an armor set akin to Pyrrha's, only with more flexible plating in the midsection. The person wearing it also had a resemblance to Pyrrha, only with slightly longer hair and more tired eyes. The man beside her had more armor, which was colored white with gold accents, and instead of the black hoodie sweatshirt, it was a black trench coat. But otherwise, he looked like an older Jaune.

Either they and the AI were on drugs, or somehow, there was an older RWBY and JNPR in the room with them.

"Hey close those mouths, you're gonna let flies in," the older looking Jaune said jokingly, while Leaf was comically looking back and forth between the two groups before she suddenly blew her top.

"SERIOUSLY! WHAT THE _FUCK_!? HOW IS THIS IS EVEN POSSIBLE!?" The A.I. shouted, then pointed at the two Elder Teams "Y-You should all be dead in the future! How is it-!?"

"That future doesn't exist anymore, Leaf. The moment she went back, all of history was destroyed. The second she arrived to attack Cinder, the timeline changed." The black haired woman wearing a very-Blake outfit shrugged. "Temporal mechanics are hard to understand on the best of days. The easiest way to say it is that we went back 10 years to today, which was the best option. Didn't want to erase our Ruby from existence."

"Your Ruby?" Weiss said blinking, "You mean the Ruby...?"

"Not the one in the basement, our Ruby died in our time," Lie Ren said, causing everyone's eyes to widen, especially the Younger Ruby.

"You see, after our Ruby saw the older one's life in the original future, she took it upon herself to make sure it didn't happen to her," the Elder Weiss said sadly, "She was killed during the war, that still happened after sustaining wounds while killing Salem and Cinder, which the latter managed to steal the Fall Maiden Powers from Amber, who died after they were taken,"

"It was NOT a pretty fight. While Cinder died first, Ruby didn't survive long enough to kill Salem. She put her pretty close to death's doorstep, though." the Elder Weiss clenched her fist. "We had to finish off that Grimm whore. And I had to watch her die."

Everyone was horrified at that, as Ruby began to shake, until she was comforted by her sister. Giving a nod of thanks, she decided to ask one question.

"W...What about the older...me?" Ruby asked, and she saw everyone of the older members of both Teams have grief-stricken faces.

"Cinder killed her instead of Pyrrha during the Vytal Festival disaster." said the older Nora, shocking everyone of the younger Team RWBY and JNPR, "The fall still happened, but if anything we DID manage to take care of the White Fang: Adam Taurus died that night. We had to spend years searching for the device, but we found it, and here we are!"

The Elder Pyrrha face took a solemn look at that, "It was after Cinder took the Maiden powers from Amber, and after I threw Jaune in that locker I went after her. She'd also taken the Elder Ruby as well and waiting for the Grimm Dragon. I knew I was no match for her, and I thought I could hear Ruby's voice screaming in my head for me not to come. But I had to try and delay her in order for help to come. I engaged Cinder, and I was wounded when an arrow hit me in the ankle... And she was about to fire the killing shot."

* * *

 _ **Elder Pyrrha's Flashback**_

* * *

The arrow had hit her Achilles tendon, which resulted in her being unable to stand up.

The young woman fell to her knees before she heard the telltale sound of a bowstring being pulled back. She looked up to see Cinder, slightly unhinged from all the nightmares she'd been having, drawing the bow back, smirking a little crazily.

"Sorry." she said, not really sorry, "It's nothing personal."

Pyrrha glared at her, all the while, Ruby's warning to her kept repeating in her head. And now, she was making the Red Hooded Reaper's sacrifice be in vain.

But then...

"CINDER!"

The shout was heard just as the false Maiden was about to release the arrow, only for her see the Elder Ruby up and about, her silver eyes glowing along with the flaming eyes of the maiden. However, she was breathing heavily, and her aura looked to be down to almost nothing. However, she didn't need aura to kill the flame wielding bitch before her.

"LEAVE HER _ALONE_! YOUR FIGHT'S WITH ME BITCH!" The raven redhead yelled, sword and her Crescent Rose in hand, ready to cut the bitch down. Cinder looked at the woman with slight fear, before looking at the young girl on the ground and then back to Ruby, before a sick twisted thought entered her mind, as she smirked deviously.

"You really care for her, huh?" she said, her hand still on the string, "Wonder how fast you can be once I release the arrow,"

Ruby's eyes widened in horror, "YOU FUCKING COWARD!" she shouted just as Cinder let go of the string, sending the arrow at Pyrrha, who watched everything in slow-motion. She closed her eyes at the last moment.

 _'I'm sorry Ruby...I'm sorry Jaune...,_ ' were her thoughts as she awaited her demise.

Pyrrha didn't notice the arrow going through her chest. Because it never DID.

Instead, she was shoved aside, her shoulder hitting the rubble, all the while hearing a pained gasp and another body falling and hitting the ground with a thud. When she opened her eyes, they widened to a horrible sight. Ruby was on the ground, an arrow through her chest, as blood began to pool. Cinder was laughing like a maniac, as though she had discovered a punchline to a sick joke.

Pyrrha's eyes widen in horror as she then quickly tried to move toward her, the task difficult due to her current injury. She crawled until she was able to get beside Ruby as she lifted the barely breathing woman into her arms. Her left hand cradling her head, while her right held onto one of Ruby's own.

"Ruby! Ruby!" she said in desperation, "Come on! Stay with me! Please!"

"I-I...I did it..." gasped out the scythe wielder, making Pyrrha blink, as Ruby opened her eyes, though she can see it difficult for her to keep them open "...I...I m-managed...to get...on time...,"

"Ruby, please don't talk! You're gonna be fine!" The Spartan said worriedly.

"No...I'm... lung shot...you can't save me" the elder said sadly, as she then coughed up blood.

"Don't say that!" Pyrrha begged, "You're gonna live! You hear me!?"

Ruby didn't say anything as she looked up into the sky, seeing the shattered moon of Remnant.

"Ya know...I never thought... the moon would ever... look so much more... beautiful right now...,"

Pyrrha felt tears stinging her eyes as she heard her friend talk.

"Please, don't talk. Save your strength!" the champion pleaded, but was surprised by what Ruby said next, as a shaky hand caressed her cheek.

"I don't need it. I need you and the others to be strong, stronger than anything else in your life," the woman then smiled as tears fell from her eyes, and blood dripped from the corners of her mouth, "Please, promise that you'll...live...no m-matter what...please...P-Pyrrha...live-"

With that, the Elder Ruby closed her eyes, head lolling to side and her hand fell with a soft thump, leaving Pyrrha shocked, her eyes widening.

"R...Ruby?" she whispered, but no response came, as she felt the powers of the Fall Maiden proceed to transfer to her, "...Ruby!?"

She felt the last of the powers inside her as she gave one final scream.

"RUBY!"

A brief glow enveloped the Spartan, which made Cinder pissed beyond measure. "NO! THAT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE MINE! MINE!" Cinder formed another arrow in the nock, drawing it back as she continued raving. "MINE!"

Having heard enough of the woman who killed her friend. Pyrrha used her semblance to throw what was left of Milo to attack the Grimm-worshiper, forcing her to jump back. Cinder then watched as the red headed champion managed to stand up, the Fall Maiden powers going into overdrive, as the wound in her tendon healed. She could see her mouth formed into a snarl as she used her semblance to bring the tip of Milo's blade to her hand.

"You...killed her...," the young woman growled out, "You killed her!"

She then snapped her head up, her green eyes flashing in rage, as tears fell.

"YOU KILLED HER!"

Cinder shot off arrow after arrow at the Champion, but Pyrrha just cut through them.

Hell hath no fury like a Maiden pissed. The speartip, however, didn't last as the blade cut into her own hand. But she knew something that would help in this situation...

Crescent Rose. Using her supercharged semblance, she pulled the weapon towards her. While a HVSS was a little beyond her, she knew enough to know which end was supposed to be in the other person's head.

Giving a feral war cry, Pyrrha slashed the weapon at Cinder, leaving a deep cut on her chest. She then proceeded to give the bitch a whole flurry of cuts on her arms and legs, until she eventually left a good cut across her face, all the while her grief and rage driving her on. She proceeded to slam the blunt part of the scythe against the false maiden sending her into the wall.

Pyrrha stomped toward, scythe in hand, as she glared at the monster she intended to end, right there, right now.

"You murdered my sister. You murdered the one person in the world I could call my SISTER! AND NOW YOU'RE GOING TO PAY WITH YOUR LIFE!" Cinder's new nightmare shot towards her, but the would-be maiden managed to climb up and jump away from the engaged Spartan, and onto a passing Griffon.

Seeing her retreat, and letting off one final scream of anger, the red headed champion turned back to the now dead woman on the ground, a small content smile on her now cooling face.

Pyrrha dropped the scythe, resulting in a heavy metallic thud, as he walked slowly back toward the body, before dropping to her knees and scooping Elder Ruby's corpse into her arms, as she began sobbing into the crook of her neck.

Just as the Younger Ruby arrived.

* * *

 _ **End of Flashback**_

* * *

"She died in my arms...," Pyrrha said as she wept, "But in the end... she died with a smile on her face."

The Elder Jaune placed an arm around her shoulders which the Mistralian appreciated as she wrapped her own arms around him.

The younger teams weren't exactly pleased with the turn of events. Instead of one mentally and emotionally damaged woman, seven almost as equally screwed up people survived the end of civilization. In a strange way, it also equaled two complete RWBYs and JNPRs.

The younger Ruby was affected out of this the most, learning that both she and her alternate older self will die.

"Wha...what happens now?" she said, causing everyone to look at her. It was the older Yang who answered, as a smile came across her face.

"Well, for us, we're gonna be protecting the other Ruby," the elder blonde said, "Not just from Cinder and Salem, but from herself."

Before anyone could continue, the elevator opened again, admitting Ozpin and Glynda, who stopped at what they were seeing.

"Either my many years of coffee drinking have finally caught up with me...," The professor began, " ...or there are two sets of the same teams in my office."

"Headmaster, I don't think you're hallucinating. Though I wish you were." was Glynda said as she looked between the younger teams and the Elder ones.

"Hey Professor Oz!" the Elder Yang said a little sheepishly, "Long time no see!"

What began was a half hour freak out by the two professors, and the two sets of two teams trying to calm them down.

Once the two were calm enough, E-Pyrrha began to inform them of future events. After she was done, both teachers were equally horrified in what was going to transpire.

"Cinder's fear of Ruby is forcing her more and more to rely on the White Fang, who are setting up a staging point for the breach in Mountain Glenn." Lie Ren said, "During this, she still plans to have Roman get captured."

"I presume we're not going to do that?" Ruby said, a little dejectedly.

The older Yang patted her Blake's shoulder. "Nope. Blakey here will deal with him. She's got some things she wants to resolve with that bastard."

The younger Team RWBY sighed, that they were miss out on the action, but then Ruby felt a hand on her head and looked up at the older version of her sister.

"Don't worry, you'll get plenty of ass-kicking later," she said, and Ruby noticed the slight sadness in her eyes.

The older Weiss tapped the pommel of her sword, getting impatient. "If you don't mind, sir, we would like to see the other Ruby." she said, making the younger Weiss blink at the sound of...great concern in her voice.

Ozpin sighed at that. "Of course...though, I believe the elevator will have to make a few trips,"

* * *

The older Weiss had been tapping her foot the entire time, while her younger counterpart was wondering a few things: why was she wearing an Atlesian specialist's uniform, why exactly was she tapping her foot so much and finally why did she also have Winter's sword?

The last one was obvious (Winter was dead, and Weiss was probably the only one with the right to use it) but the other two, not so much.

"Can't this bucket move just a LITTLE bit faster?," the older woman growled, growing a little impatient.

"Please Miss Schnee, try to be patient," Ozpin said, causing the woman to glare at him.

"Ruby was... _is_ very important to me." the Elder Weiss said, her voice tinged with sorrow, "I want to make sure she's fine."

The elevator doors opened before the group exited the lift, the older Weiss using a glyph to launch herself above the others and reach Ruby's pod.

"My Oum, she REALLY wants to see Ruby." the Younger Weiss said, blinking at the hastiness of her older self.

"Trust me, little Schnee," the elder Blake said with a smirk, "You do not know the half of it."

They watched as the elder Schnee approached the unit, just as the guards spotted her and told her to halt, but the elder Weiss was not having any of that.

"You better move out of my way if you know what's good for you," she growled out, as she put her hand on her sword for extra emphasis.

The guards wisely let her past as they saw the growing cold fury in her eyes, that reminded them of another certain Schnee Specialist.

The elder-yet-younger Schnee walked up to the pod, seeing the older Rose inside.

"Ruby...," she said breathlessly as she walked to the right side and knelt down next to the bed as she grasped her hand, tears falling from her sky blue eyes "I'm so sorry it took me so long."

The other Elder Team RWBY members arrived, and Yang immediately went to the other side of her time traveled wary sister. A sad, but happy grin, on her face.

"Hey Rubes," Elder Yang said, as she began patting her sister's head, "It's us...ya did good little sis,"

The older Ruby whimpered as she slowly opened her eyes. But when she saw all the elder forms of three of the people she cared about the most, her eyes immediately shot wide open before she started screaming. This shocked the other RWBY members as they acted quickly to hold her down to prevent from hurting herself.

"Ruby!" E-Blake shouted as the team leader and youngest member of Team RWBY started thrashing around, "Ruby, it's alright! It's us!"

"Please calm down!" E-Weiss said in worry as she tried to hold her down.

"Fuck, I forgot how bad she was before the tournament!" E-Yang said as she tried to help the silverette control her sister.

E-Ruby then began to cough up blood, which briefly ended the screaming before it started up again. This was seen by the Team JNPRs and the elder ones rushed in to help.

"The Dust!" Elder Jaune shouted,"Where is it?!"

Glynda immediately came in and injected the White Dust into E-Ruby, causing the normal stiffening before she calmed down, and the brief glow appeared. The two elder teams all looked on as the coughed up blood dripped down the side of E-Ruby's face as it seeped through the OT mask. E-Weiss immediately grabbed a cloth from one of the pouches on her belt, removed the mask and wiped E-Ruby's face of the blood.

"Where the hell's that damn cure!" The heiress shouted, frantic worry clear as day in her tone.

"You of all people should know how unstable Dust can be in its' natural state!" E-Ren sternly lectured, "And this is pure Dust; it takes time!"

"She barely survived the last time!" E-Nora added in, "In fact, that's why she died in the first place; she didn't have enough time to fully recover from the experience!"

E-Weiss didn't say anything else as she just let her emotionless wall break as tears leaked from her eyes. She then bent down and gently cradled E-Ruby's head.

"It's okay Ruby..." she whispered gently, "I'm here, and I'm not going anywhere else. You'll be alright, now, you hear me?"

The younger RWBY and JNPR watched the scene play out in front of them, all of them really disturbed and worried. The younger Ruby watched as her older self silently whimpered as the older Weiss continued to try and comfort her. One thing was for sure for all involved...they were running out of time.

* * *

 _ **Patriot-112: And another chapter down! Along with a few 4th Wall breaks by Ron.**_

 _ **Ron the True Fan: And I suffer for it. Owwwwwwwww...**_

 _ **Patriot-112: Yes you did.**_

 _ **Ron the True Fan: ...You're a dick.**_

 _ **Patriot-112: Genetics. Anyway, until next time peeps**_


	6. Chapter 5: Final Message - Mt Glenn

**AN: Same as before you morons. Now, let us continue with the operation.**

* * *

 **Chapter 5:**

 **Final Message/Mt. Glenn**

* * *

 **Team RWBY Dorm**

* * *

Ruby was looking through her older self's scroll. She'd seen most of the vids regarding the others, including a message to herself.

Which was quite the mindfuck, to say the least.

She watched the message she gave to Yang, whom she also watched with. The elder Ruby telling the Xiao Long how sorry she was for leaving her, while she was in a fragile state of mind and for not being a good sister to her. Yang immediately threw a sobbing fit after that, screaming how untrue it was. It took Ruby hugging her to calm her down, which Yang immediately returned.

The other messages basically were the same thing, with some funny moments, like Elder Ruby leaving a recipe of chocolate chip pancakes for Nora, who was giddy and drooling in anticipation at the idea.

However, there was ONE message she had yet to watch. She then reached up to press the play button before she was stopped

"You sure you want to look at that one, little Rose?" said Leaf who appeared in her hologram form, not actually cursing for once "I don't want to see that one again. When my Ruby recorded that one I...I actually cried."

Ruby was surprised by that, before turning back to the screen, which showed a text screen that said 'Play - Yes or No?'. The vid file itself was labeled as 'Final Farewell'. That alone made Ruby feel dread go down her spine. However, after much thinking about the day's events, she decided she had to know everything about what the Elder Ruby went through, including this. She then turned to Leaf, a determined expression on her face.

"I need to know everything that Ru went through, and that means watching this. If I don't know everything, how am I supposed to help her?" she said with determination, while Leaf sighed.

"Don't say I didn't warn you," the A.I. warned, but then blinked, "Wait...Ru?"

Ruby smiled sheepishly, "I can't call her Ruby, or Elder Ruby, that would make it look too weird."

Leaf only blinked before accepting it and Ruby played the last message.

" _Hey everyone. If you guys are watching this, that means you did it. You won. You kicked Cinder and Salem's collective asses, and sent the Grimm and White Fang packing. I knew you could do it. But...this is my last stop. I've seen so much, lost so much... Failed so much. The pain is just... too unbearable. I can't live another day, seeing you all in my nightmares. Judging me for my failures._ "

Ruby did not like how that sound.

" _There are no heroes alive where I'm at, since they're all dead. Team JNPR, Team CFVY, Team SSSN, they're all the heroes, while I am not_." Ru then chuckled, " _I actually heard from Jaune before he died, that the Hero, in most stories he heard or read about, sacrifices his or herself for others, and destroys the bad guys. The survivors all cheer, everybody lives happily ever after. But...the hero, never gets to see that ending. They'll never know, if their sacrifice had paid off, or if it had been in vain. They just hope for the best. Like I am."_

 _"I know that stopping Cinder at just Beacon will only just delay the inevitable. But, if what I leave behind helps in anyway. Maybe, just maybe, you might have a chance."_

Ru then sighed, " _Ain't that a bitch..._ _Oh, and by the way... Don't kill Torchwick. He might be a bastard, but he's actually better than most criminals. Keeps the rest in line._ _P.S. here's a bonus file for you to hear. After a few years of practice, I finally got it. Now as great as Weiss' singing but... it works. Until then..._ "

The vid ended with Ruby looking more shaken and disturbed than anything. Ru just confessed that she was actually planning on dying, either by the enemy's hands, or her own.

She played the file, since it contained a song. She heard a piano begin to play followed by Ru's voice.

( **BGM: Contact Redux - Red vs Blue OST** )

 _'We've been here so long... Still I remember The rainy September, Contact~ ...Two, four, one, ten, Two, four, one, ten... Am I transmitting? Is anyone listening? Contact~"_

Ruby started tearing up.

 _'We are green and gray~ ...The longness of semper, Still I remember, Contact~ ...Two, four, one, ten. Two, four, one, ten. Am I still willing, To foot all this billing? Contact~'_

A single tear impacted the ground. It wasn't alone for long.

 _'Riding on our shiny metal horses, Singing a rider's song... One of us will be forgotten, The other will be wrong~... Two, four, one, ten. Two, four, one, ten. Am I transmitting? Is anyone listening? Contact~_ '

The younger Rose began to sob, with Leaf joined in after a moment of hearing her partner's singing.

 _'When I think of you, Your name's in the sky, Ninety feet high Contact~... Riding on our shiny metal horses, Singing a rider's song... One of us will be forgotten, The other will be wrong~ ...Riding on our shiny metal horses, Singing a rider's song, One of us will be forgotten, The other will be wrong~_ '

 _'Two, four, one, ten. Two, four, one, ten. Am I still willing, To foot all this billing? Contact~_ '

Ruby soon wasn't the only one listening, as the rest of Team RWBY and Team JNPR were watching, they heard some of the last of the speech, and were greatly concerned. When the song began playing there were no shortages of sad faces or tearless eyes.

They then heard Ruby's voice speak up.

"She's my sister now." he swore, her tone filled with conviction, "And she's going to be happy, no matter what. She's NOT going to die, not if I have anything to say about it."

* * *

Roman Torchwick was trying not to die.

A crazy cat lady was trying to stab him. And if he wasn't mistaken, she was just toying with him. Like most cats do with a mouse. Playing with it, until they finally get bored and kill it.

It all started on the docks: big dust shipment to take. Five minutes later, all the White Fang morons were out cold and he was running for his life.

 _'Shit, shit, shit, SHIIIIIITT!_ ' the criminal cursed mentally, 'This is so not my night!'

"Come on Torchwick, I just wanna talk," the Cat Lady's voice said sweetly, although it sounded TOO sweetly. "If you don't be a good boy, I'll do VERY unpleasant things to you,"

He was willing to do ANYTHING to get away from the crazy bitch. Even willing to swallow his pride as a daring thief.

"Uh...will you promise not to kill me?" He said worriedly.

"I'm considering it." the voice said again, "But first thing's first. The cane on the ground and your little partner-in-crime, in full view, now. And tell her not to use her little tricks. I'll know, and any deals are off."

Surrender and live or run and die. He could live with the former.

He threw the cane away, and signaled for Neo to come on out. Said girl appeared not a second later, her face scrunched in concern and slight fear. She saw Roman give her the look that said not to do anything funny, and like a good little girl, she obeyed.

"Okay, we did what you said." Roman said, "Now what?"

"Now, we talk. You're working with Cinder Fall." Roman attempted to raise a hand, the cat girl pointed her gun at him. "Shut up. Let me finish... You're going to stop what you're working on with her. Make an excuse: police trouble, mob trouble, whatever; point is, you're going to leave her hanging in the lurch. Or I'm going to leave you and Neo here hanging from a lamp post."

"Not very subtle, kitty." Roman deadpanned before hearing the gun load a round into the chamber.

"I'm not in the mood for subtle." she said with an edge to her tone, as her narrowed golden eyes glowed in the dark, "The only reason you're not dead is because a friend of mine wants you alive. Apparently, she thinks you're going to help. Personally, I'd rather gut you and leave on the pavement to bleed out like a stuck pig."

Roman gulped at that, he was thankful that whoever sent this crazy bitch wanted him more alive than a corpse.

"And, uh~, who is your boss, may I ask?" the Thief asked nervously.

"Let's just say you met her many times before," the cat lady said, "Simple as that. Think on the deal, and if you even DARE go back on it, the last thing you'll ever see is your own head being removed from your body."

And as a human brain remains active for 30 seconds after decapitation, he would.

The criminal nodded. "I'm, uh, stuck with her until whatever she's doing in Mountain Glenn is done."

"Then keep Neo here." the Faunus said, "If I see her there, deal's off, and both of you will end up in unmarked graves. Are we clear?"

The two hesitantly nodded their heads, with Neo actually grabbing onto Roman in fright.

"Y-Yeah...c-crystal," the Thief stuttered, and the Cat Faunus nodded.

"Good," she said flatly, "I'll be in touch. Don't forget, or it's both of your heads,"

With that, the cat lady vanished from sight, disappearing into the shadows.

"O-Okay...it's official, I'm scared of women with cat ears," Roman said, with Neo nodding in agreement.

The silent girl held up a hand, finger going up.

"Got an idea?" Roman asked, since he could understand what she's saying via hand gestures and facial expressions.

She nodded and pointed at Beacon in the distance.

"Screw with the kids there?" Roman said, and Neo nodded, "Yeah, good plan. Just... don't piss off the cat lady."

* * *

"Well, ain't this nostalgic?" Said E-Weiss as they watched from their vantage as the other teams prepare to go out on their first field assignments.

"Yeah, the day before where we investigated Mountain Glenn, and where Ruby got captured by the White Fang," E-Yang clarified, while E-Weiss, clutched her sister's sword angrily.

"Not this time," the now named Ice Puma said.

Their job was to shadow the younger RWBY, and kick the living shit out of everyone there. If they couldn't stop the breach, they could limit the damage. Speaking of damage...

Squarely in Blake's sights were Emerald Sustrai and Mercury Black. While Emerald had her reservations and obeyed Cinder mostly out of fear, while Mercury killed his own father.

So one or both of them needed the ass kicking of their lives. It was a good thing they knew how to fight them. A near decade of dealing with the idiots on a regular basis did that. So they were going to tear the two apart when the time came.

However all three of their eye's narrowed hatefully as they spotted the one person they hate with a passion, and who they wanted to die slowly, and painfully. The first of two reasons why they lost Ruby... _twice_.

"It's her..." E-Yang growled out, wanting nothing more than to punch the bitch's block off with Ember Celica, "...oh I SO~ wanna make that bitch scream in agony when I break her legs,"

"Later." E-Blake said, "We need to make sure things stay on track. Last time, she wasn't able to get into the CCT towers, but the White Fang more than made up for the robots."

Yang was forced to reign in her more angry tendencies. The last two times, her mother had to step in to save her. While she was a bit of a bitch, Raven Branwen was not needlessly cruel. She didn't leave Yang behind because she thought she was worthless; she did it to protect her.

Without Neo in the picture, things were looking up.

Speaking of Neopolitan...

Said girl was disguised as a student, her hair changed to all dark brown, while her eyes were colored sapphire blue.

"I can't believe you managed to convince that weasel to send Neo here, Blake," E-Yang said, as she saw through the half-pink head's disguise easily since she was using a lot of her aura to do it. E-Blake shrugged her shoulders.

"Actually, I'm surprised that happened," the cat Faunus said.

The younger teams had met her, and in spite of her silence, they liked her.

Until E-Weiss decided to be a bitch and tell Y-Yang that she nearly killed her. The result was Neo running from her for six hours. At which point she calmed down and Neo signed that she was sorry for thinking about it. The older one made sure she was honest.

And as such, Neo was currently on VERY thin ice. It would just take one flame up for her to be in deep shit. (GONG! THE FUCK?!)

"Well, at least she's not gonna be used by that mentally unstable bitch," E-Yang said, "Remember our future Neo? She was tortured by Cinder, because she told her to make herself look like Ruby to take her frustration out on someone, and when we found her...let's just say, enemy or no, even she didn't deserve that,"

The other two nodded at that.

"We should get ready." said E-Blake, "Thankfully Jaune and the others are looking after Ruby while we're gone"

The other two nodded and went to the rooms that Ozpin assigned them.

"Oh yeah, when dad moved in he brought Zwei with him," E-Yang said, causing E-Blake to stiffen.

While she got BETTER with Zwei, she still wasn't truly comfortable with him.

She was getting there. Very, VERY slowly.

She was a CAT Faunus after all. And cats are REALLY scared of dogs...with a few exceptions.

"Just...keep him away from me," she said, causing E-Yang to giggle. E-Weiss however had a concerned frown on her face.

"I still don't like leaving Ruby here alone," E-Weiss said worriedly, "What if something happens while we're gone?"

E-Yang placed a hand on her shoulder, "It'll be alright, Weiss," the blonde said comfortingly, "With Jaune, Pyrrha, and the rest of Team JNPR here, they'll make sure she's safe. Pyrrha especially, since after the other Ruby died, she was protective of the one we knew and love,"

The older Schnee was not pleased. She remembered how devastated Pyrrha was when both their Ruby, and the Elder Ruby died in what they called the Ru-Timeline. Pyrrha saw this as her second chance to help Ru, and Weiss was thankful for that.

Regardless, E-Weiss was not willing to leave.

"That doesn't make me feel any better," she growled out.

"You know it wasn't Pyrrha's fault that day, Weiss," E-Blake said.

"I know that!" E-Weiss snapped before calming down, "It's just...I don't want to lose her again, after just getting her back,"

"We know." E-Blake said comforting the older Weiss as she placed a hand on her shoulder, "It might not be our Ruby, but she's still Ruby."

"No, she's our Ruby." E-Weiss, with conviction, "We were just...separated for a while."

The three joined their younger counterparts, passing themselves off to the rest of Beacon as 'relatives' to Team RWBY.

Irony was a bitch.

The two sets then headed to the bullhead that will take them to Mountain Glenn, but then E-Weiss realized something.

"Wait a minute...when we were on this assignment, the professor assigned to us was..." E-Weiss' widened comically white as she remembered, "...oh crap."

"Hello, everyone!"

The three older versions of Team RWBY had only thought.

' _Oobleck. Of all the people, why Oobleck_?'

The hyperactive history teacher stood before the younger RWBY, whose eyes were twitching.

While the man was capable, insanely so, his drawbacks were that he seemed to be a living caffeine rush and drove them INSANE at history. On the other hand, the breach was lessened mostly by the fact that he was damn good at his job.

"A pleasure to see you all here today! Hopefully as you're all aware that even though your relatives are accompanying you on this expedition, Ozpin strictly stated that an official teacher of Beacon is to remain with you at all times so you don't get into TOO much trouble!" he said at a fast pace, much to the Younger RWBY's annoyance, and the Elder's exasperation.

"What did he say?" Y-Yang deadpanned.

"He's here because Ozpin said so." Y-Blake clarified.

"Oum damn it!"

* * *

The Bullhead dropped the eight off near the ruins of Mountain Glenn. The Elder Team RWBY remembered coming back to this place back in the old timeline, and the history behind the now abandoned settlement. It was suppose to be an extension of the kingdom of Vale, but the Grimm kept attacking the place, forcing many people to evacuate while the others were forced to live underground. That same underground town eventually became a White Fang Base.

"Stick with Oobleck." E-Yang told their younger versions, and pointed at the red-hooded girl we all love, "That goes double for you, Ruby. You got captured by the White Fang. And I don't think either Weiss can handle it if you got hurt."

The words 'ethnic cleansing' came to mind. On the other hand, who would care? They were terrorists. These people KILLED people.

But not the RWBY of the past. They wouldn't see their deaths as necessary.

"Ah, and before I forget...," she said as she turned Ruby around, opened her backpack, reached in and brought out a single Welsh Corgi. "...Hey Zwei,"

The little dog gave a bark prompting everyone to look at said animal.

"You brought him with you?!" Y-Blake said, her cat instincts on all cylinder alert.

"Relax, Blake." Y-Yang said trying to calm her down, "He came with dad all the time."

"THAT, we can actually confirm: that little dog can kick the ass out of any Grimm." E-Weiss said as she gave the dog a scratch behind the ears, causing the little dog to pant happily.

Understatement: the dog killed an Ursa during the Breach. If the pup wanted to, he could kill that dragon Grimm.

"You are right about that!" And queue the caffeine addict, "And not to mention dogs have been companions for Huntsmen and Huntresses for centuries! Their acute senses of smell and hearing, and their sixth sense can warn of any Grimm approaching! Marvelous, this is just marvelous!"

"Here we go," the younger RWBY said at the same time, as Oobleck went into his quick paced professor mode.

Of course, Blake wasn't paying as much attention as she kept an wary eye on the little dog. She then felt a hand on her shoulder and looked to see her older counterpart.

"Relax, little sister. Zwei is friendly to everyone." E-Blake said, though she was nervous herself, cat genes and all, "Let him near you and let him show you." Zwei approached the younger Blake, who was still getting used to the 'younger sister' thing. While the cat in her was yelling to run, her reasoning said the dog wanted to be her friend.

Reason finally won out and she pet the dog. Zwei responded by being cuddly.

"There! That wasn't so bad!" E-Yang said, "Now shall we?"

"Yes! Of course!" said Oobleck, as he turned around, "Also ladies, just so you know! I was already informed by Ozpin about the Time Travel scenario!"

"Damn it." groaned E-Yang, "The whole world's gonna know at this rate."

"Not true, Ms. Xiao Long!" Oobleck countered, "I am quite good at keeping secrets! Though you are correct: your information will end up in enemy hands eventually."

"So long as Cinder still fears Ruby, I don't think we really care, Doc." E-Blake said, "The main reason she was so screwed up was Ruby's attempt to kill her. No one ever got that close until Ruby tried. Though we finished her off."

"Yes you did!" Oobleck said, and then spoke gravely even though speaking fast, "But, at great sacrifice."

The elder three fourths of Team RWBY all know what he meant, while the younger ones understood. Though to be perfectly honest, the now named Ru sacrificed a whole lot more.

"Now! Time's a wasting!" Oobleck spoke getting their attention, "We must continue our search for the White Fang base! Hurry now!"

Little did Oobleck know that they already knew the location of the base. The three elders just needed the excuse to get in and do what needed to be done. So they just needed to spend time with their younger 'siblings'. And they wanted to. Yang was the only one with experience as an older sister, and as such, they wanted to experience it on their first outing with the younger RWBY. All the while fighting Grimm.

"So, exactly, what is your relationship with the currently incapacitated future Ruby?" Y-Weiss asked her counterpart/sister, who just slashed off a Beowolf's head.

"All I can say, is that we were extremely close," E-Weiss said, before turning her head, "To your left!"

Y-Weiss impaled another Beowolf, but the heavy animal nearly knocked her over before a larger, and white, Ursa Major lifted it's paw up to strike at her. However that was stopped when the Elder Weiss, with the grace much like their shared sister Winter, sliced the Ursa in half.

Y-Weiss looked at her 'elder sister' in shock. "But..."

"As with all things, practice. I've been around ten years longer then you have. As such-" She summoned the armor that both faced during their exam at the Schnee manor to help the younger Ruby. "I've mastered a few things."

Y-Weiss watched as her older self showed a mastery of glyph summoning, and to her shock, something from their past. She began to feel something within herself, a sense of determination to one day surpass not only her sister Winter, but also herself.

Meanwhile with the two Yangs, they were having a blasts as they proceeded to punch blast any Grimm that came after them, with giving a strong punch that blew a Ursa's head off.

"How the hell did you do that?!" Y-Yang gawked at the power of the Elder Yang's punch.

"A decade of work! Plus a few upgrades to Ember Celica given to me by Ru!" The younger Xiao Long looked at the weapons. They had extended to cover the entire forearm, and the loading mechanism was further back, incorporating heavy armor plating into the shotgun's mechanism, as well as what appeared to be aura-charged magnets alongside both barrels.

"That's one of her designs?" Y-Yang said, before she had to punch a Boarbatusk, that was charging at her away.

"More like modification," E-Yang said, before she grabbed a Beowolf and placed it in a chokehold. "I'll show you the blueprints when we get back!"

"Geez! Is there anything Ru hadn't designed?," Y-Yang said, before shaking her head and going back to demolishing Grimm.

Both Blakes used their respective weapons to take down several Creeps, Although E-Blake's weapon seemed to be doing more damage, and firing much faster.

"What did she do to that thing?" Y-Blake said blinking in amazement.

"Gave it a fully automatic firing setting and a more secure grip for the ribbon!" Another Ursa swiped at the older girl, claws connecting with the blade.

With the younger one's Gambol Shroud, that would have shattered the blade. "She also redesigned the blade to be a hell of a lot stronger and lighter!"

With that said and with cat like speed and reflexes, E-Blake sliced the bear Grimm apart. The younger Blake watched as her counterpart/sister dealt instant death on the Grimm.

"I still got a lot to learn," she said, and went back to taking out Grimm.

With Ruby, she watched as her teammates and sister(s) take on the Grimm, while watching the older ones and their modified weapons.

"Wow, I need to take a look at Ru's own Crescent Rose, and see what she did with it," the red/ravenette said, before the sound of an Ursa behind her caught her attention.

It roared before Ruby hacked its' head off, but with her attention on it, another Beowolf attacked her. None of the girls could stop it.

But something did.

A small black and white blur hit the Beowolf in the head sending it flying back into a building. The blur then did a backflip before landing next to Ruby.

"Thanks Zwei!" Ruby thanked as she patted the dog on the head. The corgi gave a bark in reply.

The Elder Team RWBY gave a sigh of relief at that, thankful the little dog was there.

In short, the Grimm were slaughtered by the eight-person and one dog party within a few hours, clearing out an area for the girls to rest in.

If it took the apocalypse to create Grimm killers like them, then damn, it needed to happen as many times as possible. The Grimm'd be extinct in a few months that way! (FWACK!)

They were all resting by the fire as the older Yang began to tell them their war stories, most of them not pretty. She was currently telling them on what happened at Mistral, apparently they lasted a lot longer than what Ru said. But then the kingdom fell when Salem unleashed a new weapon: Human Grimm. These Grimm were just like their animal counterparts, drawn to negative emotions, but the worst part is that they're actually trained to fight Hunters.

The Human Grimm came in three classes: Soldier, Centurion, and Commander.

It explained why the three were as equally skilled fighting humans as they were normal Grimm.

And a classic sign of evolution. Bout time. (SMACK!)

"And Salem has had these things in reserve for years?" Y-Yang questioned while the elder nodded.

"Yup, had them even before Cinder's attack on Vale," E-Yang said, "So our collective advice, don't underestimate them. They may be drawn by emotions like normal Grimm, but they're WAY smarter than normal Grimm."

"What about the song?" The elders looked to Ruby, who was visibly depressed.

"What song?" E-Weiss

"The one on the scroll." Ruby said, and watched as the other's eyes widened, "You watched it didn't you?,"

The Elders all looked down at that, while the younger Team RWBY also had depressed looks, as they were there when they heard the elder Ruby sing.

"Yeah...we did," said E-Blake, "But it was actually a week after Beacon fell, the Ruby, our Ruby, was greatly devastated by it,"

"Time travel gives me a headache..." Ruby said as she massaged her head, while the Elder RWBY all chuckled at that.

"Ruby, we stopped worrying about the specifics of time travel a very long time ago." said as she placed a hand on her shoulder, "All we care about is that we're here, and we're going to save everyone."

Ruby took this in, before she remembered. "Ru said in the message, that Team CFVY and Team SSSN died as heroes. I believe... The same thing happened in...your timeline?"

The Elder RWBY all winced at that.

"Yeah...," E-Weiss said, "Team CFVY stayed behind in Vale in order to help evacuate any remaining people still trapped there. They were swarmed by a mix stampede of Ursa, Beowolves, and Deathstalkers...Yatsuhashi was the first to go down, after protecting Velvet, who immediately followed. Then Fox was killed when a Deathstalker hit him with it's stinger, it didn't kill him, but he got jumped by a pack of Beowolves...they tore him to pieces."

The younger Team RWBY were horrified by that.

"And Coco...?" Y-Yang said, worried for the leader of Team CFVY.

"She survived." E-Blake said sadly, "Kept living for a while. But eventually she just...took a knife and slit her own throat. She was SMILING the whole time, like something just drove her crazy."

Like something wanted to make her whole, maybe? ( **FWACK! EAT SHIT AND DIE**!)

The younger Team RWBY all had paled looks on their face, while E-Yang and E-Weiss groaned.

"Thank you Blake," E-Weiss grumbled, "Now I'm not going to be sleeping for the rest of the night."

"So much the better." E-Blake said, "We have to hit that hideout today."

"What can we be expecting?" Y-Blake asked, "Aside from the White Fang?"

E-Yang was the first to answer, "Well, last time, it was Torchwick, his little pet, a train full of bombs, and all the Grimm the explosions let in...not much,"

"But Neo's at Beacon, as you told us." said Ruby, "What do you think she's doing there now?"

Currently driving Glynda fucking BONKERS, but that was unsaid. Unless you count this. (SMACK!)

Back to the story.

"Hopefully staying out of trouble," said E-Yang, though she shouldn't have said that.

"And Sun's team?" Y-Blake said, concern for her fellow Faunus' team.

The Older Blake sighed sadly.

"They fell when Mistral did," she said. "The last we heard was that they were last seen fighting six King Taijitu. We never heard anything else since,"

The girls were all silent knowing all their friends, aside from Team JNPR were all gone, either falling in battle, or to grief.

* * *

Railways were the lifeblood of any nation. From the Trans-Siberian Railway that was to result in the death of Tsar Nicholas the 2nd to the railways of Europe and North America and, yes, even Remnant. Which was why there was a full-blown railway connecting Mountain Glenn to Vale.

I'm just going to say that was a really stupid idea, just like Mountain Glenn itself. (SQUICK!)

And that is precisely why the White Fang, a SHIT LOAD of White Fang, were now in the tunnels as they waited for the go ahead to begin the operation. This is exactly what the two Team RWBYs, Oobleck, along with Zwei are currently looking at right now.

"There wasn't THAT many White Fang here the first time around," E-Weiss said.

"Maybe Cinder got spooked." E-Yang said, "Who cares? More people that need to be shot."

"A little cold, Yang," E-Blake said, "but correct: they are terrorists." As noted, the White Fang were race-political terrorists.

As such, fuck 'em; they want to kill people for no other reason than that they're human, so throw them in a meat grinder and be done with it.

"Whoa, that's... dark," said Y-Yang, while her elder self looked at her with the 'are you serious' look.

"War and losing friends can do to you, little sis," E-Yang said, "And despite the fact that the Grimm were attacking both Faunus and Humans, the White Fang continued their 'little crusade' to wipe out humanity and any Faunus they saw as traitors,"

Y-Blake's eyes widened at that before her hands clenched into fists, being reminded of how slowly Adam turned from the man she once loved, into the cold heartless killer he later became.

"So, if we can avoid killing them, we will." E-Weiss stated, but then scowled, "But a man once told us that there's a stupid gene, and we're not tolerating it any further. They want to be stupid? They can die for their stupidity."

Not nice, but a decade of losing friends to stupid idiots and the Grimm tends to make one go 'fuck this' and get with stupid in...extreme ways.

The younger RWBY didn't like that, including the Ice Queen ( [SLAP!] OW! WHAT THE FUCK DID I DO!?), but since this Team RWBY was from the future that the elder RWBY came from, they had no right to judge.

"It is true what they say girls," said Oobleck, who despite whispering, was doing it really fast. "Your future selves have fought in a war, and war can change the outlooks people have on the world,"

"But they don't need to die just because they made a mistake." Y-Weiss argued.

"Ms. Schnee, I understand you want to make overtures to the Faunus, but the White Fang are not going to listen." said Oobleck, knowing of Weiss' desire to undo the damage her father caused, "If anything, they will kill you and gloat about it. But they will make sure the number of fatalities are as low as they can be, yes?"

"We'll knock them out if we can, Doc." E-Yang said "Otherwise, no mercy."

Especially for Mr. Chainsaw. (WRRR! Uh-oh.)

Ruby didn't like the sound of that, but unfortunately, she had no choice.

"Now, that we're done," Oobleck said, "Let's move!"

* * *

Roman Torchwick was many things.

Dumb wasn't one of them. And this was STUPID! He was going to get killed for this by that cat lady, and he was not wanting to die.

Survival instinct was strong in this one. (PING!)

 _'Man, I'm stuck in a crossfire between crazy women who want to tear each other's throats out_ ,' the criminal said, as he lit another cigar to calm his nerves. _'After this job, I'm outta here!_ '

Explosions and screaming were heard outside the train. "And that would be my cue to get the hell out of here." Cinder agreed to letting him go after mountain Glenn. He just had to do this, and he was free of her.

Of course, he feared the cat lady more than he feared Cinder. As E-Blake was just the little kitty he never met, that was saying something. (STAB! OW!)

Still, soon as he sees her, he was just going to surrender. As long as Neo lived, he didn't care.

He immediately jumped onto the train along with other White Fang, as the sounds the sounds of gunfire, blades clashing and slicing flesh were heard.

"Start the train up! We're going!" Roman shouted.

"But it's too early!" said the White Fang member with him.

"Well, my friend, someone is KILLING your friends! You want your plan to go forward? THEN START THE MOTHERFUCKING TRAIN!"

Another scream was heard before another Fang member (Roman wasn't sure if he was dead or not, nor did he care) impacted the side of the car.

And Cat lady was standing there.

Roman paled when he saw her, especially when he saw that smirk on her face.

"MOVE IT!" Roman yelled and the Faunus hesitantly, but surely started the train and it took off down the tunnel, which seriously, the Vale authorities did a crappy job in burying.

Too bad they didn't have that Atlesian Captain's bomb. THAT would do the job!

"There it goes!" E-Blake just as the team joined up after dealing with the large amount of White Fang.

"Now comes the good part," E-Yang said with a smirk.

"Good for whom?" Y-Yang asked, before she saw the other elders smirk.

"Not these idiots, that's for sure." E-Blake said.

* * *

Roman was curled up in the fetal position, attempting to forget about Cat Lady.

He wasn't succeeding.

"Repress, repress, she doesn't exist. Repress, repress..."

The Faunus who were with him, all looked at him with varying degrees of confusion.

"What the hell's the matter with him?" said a female Faunus, with two goat ears on her head.

"Beats the hell out of me...," said a male Faunus with deer antlers.

"He's referring to me."

Both morons slowly turned their heads to the rear of the car. Standing there was seemingly an older, much more lethal Blake Belladonna.

Torchwick screamed. Everyone else is no doubt enjoying this too much.

"OH SHIT! OH SHIT! OH SHIT!" the man kept repeating , as the two Faunus grabbed their weapons. As they looked at her, they recognized her in a instant.

"Wait...Blake?" said the goat eared female Faunus, "W-What are you...?"

"Oh, I'm not the Blake you knew. I know better. And what do I see?" Both Faunus blinked. "A bunch of idiots trying to conduct mass genocide. Which is a crime against sentience. What happens to those people, hmm?"

The two morons got the picture. "FUCK THIS, WE'RE LEAVING!"

They immediately left, by jumping out of the train into the large tunnel. Now it was just Torchwick, and the Elder Blake.

"O-Okay, look. I did what you asked okay?" the crook said, "I didn't bring Neo, and I kept my word this is my last job!"

"I know. Cinder's a bitch." E-Blake said, "Though you're still under arrest."

"Just don't kill me!" Torchwick whimpered, while E-Blake rolled her eyes.

Out of character, perhaps, but confidence flees in the face of almost certain death. And Torchwick is not an idiot.

Extremely stupid at times, but not worth a dip in the death tub.

However a boom got their attention, causing the Cat woman to grab him by the front of his suit.

"Why didn't you disable the bombs!?" she accused, her eyes boring into him.

"I did!" A motor started up, and Blake groaned. Yang had nicknamed this one Mr. Chainsaw. And Weiss hated him.

Mostly because of that thrice-damned chainsaw. She then threw the thief against the wall of the engine cabin as she turned to face the White Fang lieutenant.

"I should've known he'd sent YOU of all people here," E-Blake growled, as she readied herself, "One less psycho among our people, the better,"

"Traitor!"

"The White Fang betrayed our people the second you started killing people simply for being human." E-Blake said as she readied her Gambol Shroud, "Not their fault."

The man screamed as he attacked Blake, who deftly dodged the chainsaw. "Be thankful Yang isn't here. She would tear you apart."

She then proceeded to engage the chainsaw wielding ass-hat to a duel, which the Faunus was a little clumsy at best.

"Adam's training skills must be sucking." E-Blake mocked, "I remember the last time I was around you juggernauts were a little more faster and coordinated,"

"DIE!" He swung the chainsaw again, missing Blake by a full meter.

"You missed." the cat Faunus ninja said with a smirk, Blake had become the mistress of psychological warfare in the decade of genocide. And it was showing.

She could make Adam commit suicide if she wanted to. Just through talking.

The grunt was getting angrier and angrier, making him more stupid and predictable. And THAT's what she wanted. The chainsaw maniac then roared a feral shout and charged at Blake, chainsaw raised, determined to kill, in his mind, the traitor to White Fang. And with that mistake...Blake struck.

With a single, fast stroke of the HFV modified blade of her Gambol Shroud , the blade cut through the White Fang Grunt's aura, and cleanly through flesh and bone, making the juggernaut stop in mid step.

Blake then placed the katana blade back it's bladed sheath.

"Game. Set. Match," was all she said before slamming the rest of the blade down with a loud snap.

The idiot's corpse impacted the deck, blood pooling under the cooling body.

 _'Should've thought better_ ,' The Cat faunus said before back to the cabin where Torchwick was now cowering.

"Now then, where were we?" she said, and Roman gulped, as she said the Three W's that no bad guy wanted to hear.

* * *

 _ **Elsewhere on the train.**_

* * *

"One would think that disarming explosives all set to a single timer would be simple." Weiss was not an explosives expert, if you hadn't noticed.

She didn't know much about backup timers, solenoid cells detonators, you get the idea. Her elder sister, on the other hand, did.

"Apparently someone in the White Fang is smart enough to put in a backup trigger incase the timers were disarmed," E-Yang said, "It looks like the Breach will happen after all..."

The Younger Team RWBY all had horrified looks at that, as the Grimm swarmed into the hole from the ceiling. "Don't worry. We'll limit the damage as much as we can. If we can cut the cords-" "No, all of the wires have detonator circuits. One clip and they explode with enough force to destroy the walls."

Disarming them wasn't going to happen. They were going to have to move them in order to limit the damage to the interior of Vale.

"Hurry now girls!" Said Professor Oobleck. "We must stop the train!"

Then another of the cars detached and the two sets, one professor, and one dog jumped toward the next car, 10 seconds later the car exploded and then the White Fang Faunus were coming out to stop them.

"GET THE HUMANS!" shouted a female Faunus as the extremist rushed out to stop the Hunters.

"So, disable or kill?" E-Yang asked E-Weiss whose only response was readying her Myrtenaster.

"They're the idiots stupid enough to attack us!" the heiress said, though the elder Schnee wasn't looking forward to killing any Faunus, but self-defense was allowed.

"Good point," E-Yang said, and they then charged the extremists.

* * *

 _ **Meanwhile back at Beacon**_

* * *

Team JNPR, the younger set, were heading toward the Bullhead, while their elder counterparts were looking after E-Ruby. Said future selves gave them the details of the Breach, and told them to stand by just in case it DOES happen. While they headed for the transport, all of them couldn't help but be worried for Ruby, both the older and the younger.

"You think, they'll complete the Dust in time to cure her?" Pyrrha said worriedly.

"From what we were told. We barely got it into her the first time." Ren said, "When our older selves came back, they decided to make sure we could speed up the process of making it. She took it just a week before the fall of Vale, which is over a month away if time remains as it is. If she takes it now..."

The end of the sentence was unsaid, but clear: if the elder Rose recovered faster, instead of either her's or Pyrrha's corpse on the office floor of Beacon Tower, it would be Cinder's corpse lying there instead.

Victory for the good guys, right?

"But what about that Grimm Queen, Salem?" Jaune asked, "From what they, and the older Ruby told us, she's nothing to be sniffed at."

"Then we just need to train harder and kick her Grimm butt to the other side of Remnant!" Nora said enthusiastically, making the rest of Team JNPR laugh at her eagerness. However their laughter is cut short by the sound that they actually hoped never happened...warning sirens.

"It appears the Breach has happened after all," said Pyrrha.

"I don't think we can change much." Ren said, "Some things might be meant to happen. But we'll be damned if we let those Grimm kill anyone."

The last time, the Grimm were contained and the hole sealed, but a number of people lost their lives. The elder team vowed that wasn't going to happen, not this time.

"Come on; let's get to the breached area." Jaune said, a determined look on his face, "And if there's a next time, we'll find a way to PERMANENTLY seal those tunnels."

"We'll think on that later, let's just get going!" Pyrrha said as Team JNPR jumped into the Bullhead, which took off in the direction of the city.

* * *

"Well THIS is certainly a case of Deja Vu," said E-Yang, as the two-three quarter sets of Team RWBY where in the Plaza, surrounded by Beowolves, Creeps, Ursi, and Boarbatusks. "I guess no matter what this event always happens."

"No time for jokes, Yang," said E-Weiss.

"Who said I was joking?" the Elder Yang retorted.

Before they can argue, the Grimm began attacking, and the 2 3/4 sets began the slaughter of the Grimm, with both Yangs dealing damage on a group of Beowolves, both Weiss' attacking Boarbatusks, and the Blakes dealing with the creeps, leaving Ruby to deal with the Ursi.

"I feel lonely here," the Grimm Reaper said solemnly wishing her own 'Big sister' was there with them. But knowing why she couldn't. Pushing that thought out of her mind, she began to use her Scythe-Rifle, using the blast of the gun to swing the scythe fast to deliver devastating cuts, and dodge incoming swipes.

The efforts were worth it as they dealt damage to the Grimm as they came through the hole.

However, a Beowolf managed to sneak up on Ruby, but before it attack a hail of Dust bullets rips it to shreds, causing the red hooded girl to look behind and then in the direction where the shots came as the Atlas Air Fleet, along with Bullheads containing all the other teams.

"And right on time!" E-Weiss said as the said Huntsmen and Huntresses disembarked.

Among them being Team CFVY, as well as young Team JNPR. Between them and the Atlesian Knights, they easily dealt with the Grimm, while the Elder Team RWBY was feeling nostalgic, seeing CFVY dealing pain to the Grimm, including Coco using her Purse minigun, Fox's blades, and Yatsuhashi using his zanbatou sword. Of course, they didn't see Velvet use her mimic semblance since Coco told her not to. Overall, it was awesome to see them in action again.

When it finally ended, Roman, captured by the Elder Blake was handed over to the Atlesians, and the day ended with far less casualties than expected. Which Team RWBY Elder were happy about, after the last of the Grimm and any surviving White Fang members the RWBY two three quarter pack, along with Team JNPR, and all other student teams, returned to Beacon.

* * *

 ** _Ozpin's Office_**

 ** _An hour later_**

* * *

After a moment's rest, the aforementioned teams had arrived at the Headmaster's office to give their report. At the mention of their being more White Fang, from the Elder Team RWBY, and Ru's respective timelines suggest, Ozpin can conclude one thing...

"It appears the butterfly effect is in motion," he said, "We'll need to be extremely careful from now on."

Everyone of the teams groaned at that knowing that with the changing timeline, there could be variables they won't expect.

Before anyone could voice anything, E-Yang's scroll rang, and after seeing it was from E-Jaune, she answered it.

"What is it Jaune?" she said.

" _Yang! You gotta down here now_!" they heard E-Jaune's voice frantically shout, and all of them knew it wasn't good, " _Ruby just had another attack, and the medicinal Dust isn't working as much anymore! She nearly flatlined!"_

That last part, caused everyone's eyes to widen in horror. Especially for the Elder Team RWBY members as they immediately bolted for the elevator.

* * *

"DAMMIT!" E-Pyrrha shouted as she, E-Jaune, Amber, and E-Nora were glancing at the monitor, while Ru's breathing was becoming more and more erratic. And the thrashing that the said woman was making was not helping matters "Ren, Professor, hurry!"

"We're almost done!" Glynda said, just as the three quarters of Team RWBY arrived. Both E-Weiss and E-Yang were looking at Ru with extreme cases of worry.

"Ruby!" E-Weiss shouted frantically, as she saw the heart monitor going crazy.

"Please stay where you are!" Glynda warned, "We don't know how this will affect her aura so-"

She was cut off when the sound they all dreaded was heard, the wail of a flatline. Everyone's eyes widened in horror.

"NO!" Yang shouted.

"Not on my watch!" Nora shouted, as her hands sparked with electricity and she slammed her hands on Ru's chest, like a human defibrillator, "Come on Ruby! Stay with us!"

The others all watched, as Nora hit Ru a total of five times, before managing to get a heartbeat on the monitor, slow but steady. They all breathed a sigh of relief at that.

"That _won't_ happen, again," Nora said, a proud smile on her face as she wiped the sweat on her brow off, while the rest of Team RWBY and her own team looked at her incredulously. Weiss was the one who spoke the one thought on their minds.

"We don't want to SEE that again!"

"Alright, it's done!" Glynda said, as she filled the said Dust into a syringe and walked over to Ruby, the dust itself, being silver instead of white. "Here goes everything,"

With that she injected the dust right at Ru's heart and depressed the needle. The results were immediate as Ru's back arched as her mouth opened in a silent scream. E-Pyrrha, and E-Nora moved to hold her down, but were stopped as the golden glow of the Fall Maiden powers went into overdrive. It lasted in the space of a full thirty seconds until finally the glow vanished, and Ru collapsed on the bed, her breathing quickly turning from barely to completely normal.

Glynda took out the scanner and placed it over Ru's chest, and looked for any remnant sign of the Strangler. After thoroughly making sure, she breathed a sigh of relief.

"It's gone..." she said tiredly, "There's no sign of the Grimm corruption anywhere, and her heart rate is returning to normal,"

That caused everyone to smile, or breath a sigh of relief, as E-Weiss rushed over and cradled Ru's head in her arms, tears of happiness in her eyes.

"You little dolt." the Schnee said, her voice filled with relief, "Don't you EVER scare like me that again, or I will kill you myself,"

Everyone chuckled at that, as the younger teams and Ozpin arrived, and seeing the happy faces on their older counterparts, they immediately pieced it together and that it was a success and shared the same reactions.

Glynda walked over to the Headmaster, who had a relieved look on his face.

"It was a close one...," the Telekinesis specialist said tiredly, "...we almost lost her, but thanks to Ms. Valkyrie's quick thinking, we were able to administer the dust,"

Ozpin nodded, happy that the first part of the ordeal was over. But, he knew that now comes the ever harder part of the Elder Rose's recovery...the mental kind.

* * *

 ** _Patriot-112: FINALLY! Got this chapter done at last! And a freakin' long one too! *Sigh* Anyway, sorry it took so long, my_ co-writer _decided to ditch me for other projects mid-chapter so I had to finish the rest by myself. But, better late than never. I hope you all enjoyed this, please leave a fav, follow, and review, and have a good rest of the week!_**

 ** _P.S.: My second RWBY fic is in the works. However, it's centered more on our favorite White Knight. Until next time, peeps!_**


	7. Chapter 6: Rough Road to Recovery

_**Patriot-112: Hey Peeps! I'm back! Last chapter's reception was better than I anticipated, and I have a feeling the more I do well, the better the reception. And with Volume 4 just over a month away, I can't wait for more material. What will happen in this next season? Well, that's for us the fans to find out. Now then, let's get on with the show shall we?**_

* * *

 _ **Chapter 6:**_

 _ **Rough Road to Recovery**_

* * *

 _ **Beacon Academy**_

 _ **Ru's temporary quarters**_

* * *

It had been a week since the Dust cure for the Grimm Strangler succeeded in healing Ru, much to the relief of the Elder WBY and JNPR. Twelve hours later, she managed to wake up...but sadly, it was only physical.

Currently, both Elder and Younger teams were in Ru's new living arrangements, which was an old Teacher's quarters that was rarely ever used, but still kept in good condition. The said woman was sitting up in bed, dressed in a sleeping gown, her silver eyes open. But one would only need to take a good look at the eyes to see that they were dimmed, almost lifeless as if the woman had lost the will to continue living.

This caused great concern to everyone in the room as E-Weiss caressed the unresponsive Ru's hand, a look of worry on her face.

"How are we gonna get her to fully wake up?" the older Schnee said, "The preparations for the festival are almost done. We're running out of time!"

The others all understood the Schnee's worry, as the silverette's eye shedded tears.

"We'll find a way to snap her out of it, Weiss," said E-Pyrrha in sympathy, "She's always bounced back even when she took a bad hit,"

E-Weiss' facial expression showed one of frustration, "Well from my point of view, it looks as though losing all her friends has stripped all that spirit from her!" she snapped, "And I know certain people that we can all blame for this!"

Of course she was talking about Salem and Cinder, of course that list extended to Mercury and Emerald, since they helped Cinder try to take the Fall Maiden Powers from Ru, if Qrow and Amber hadn't arrived in time. Thus why she swore to give those two a beating they would never forget until they die and be food for the worms.

"We'll deal with them when the time comes Ice Queen," E-Yang said, placing a hand on her shoulder, "And I'll even let you get in the first shot,"

E-Weiss chuckled morosely, "That's nice of you Yang," she said, "And I know you want a shot at Mercury and Emerald for what they did to you in the other timeline,"

E-Yang growled at that, "Oh you have NO idea...," she grounded out, "...when I get my hands on Black, I'm gonna rip off those prosthetic legs of his and stick'em up Emerald's-"

"AHEM!" E-Blake interrupted before pointing to the younger versions of themselves. E-Yang actually had the decency to look sheepish.

"Oh, whoops!" she said, while Y-Yang just smirked.

"Trust me, I want to do the same," she said, as she then placed an arm around Ruby, "And I'm definitely gonna protect both my sisters. That's a promise,"

"Aww come on!" Ruby said, a little embarrassed, before she felt a hand on her head as well, and looked at Y-Pyrrha who was smiling.

"I made a promise to be a sister to you," she then looked at Ru, "Both of you, and I intend to keep it,"

E-Pyrrha couldn't help but smile at her younger self. She kept that same promise, and it failed tragically, twice. Now she has another chance.

E-Weiss smiled before turning to Ru, she then decided to do something that will probably help. She stood, gently grabbed the sides of the catatonic woman's head, and turned her face toward her...

...and to the shock of the Younger teams, gave Ru a soft but passionate kiss on the lips.

The facial expressions on the Young Team RWBY were obvious, Weiss' and Ruby's eyes were bulging out of their sockets, Yang's eyes were also wide, while her right eye twitched as she subconsciously formed Ember Celica's gauntlet mode in her right hand, which was clenched into a fist, while Blake's was a mix between shock and interest.

"...W...W...W...?" Ruby and Weiss were muttering at the same time as they saw one of their older selves kissing the other.

The young Team JNPR were also shocked, but not as shocked as RWBY, though Nora looked like she was about to do something crazy, if Ren hadn't placed a hand on her shoulder and shook his head 'no'.

The older teams were laughing at their younger counterparts' faces, finding it rather amusing.

Finally, after E-Weiss finished kissing Ru, her younger self finally snapped out of her shock, but her eyes were still wide.

"W-WHAT THE HECK WAS THAT!?" She screamed, "WHY DID YOU KISS HER!?"

E-Weiss turned to her youngest self, a mischievous smirk on her face.

"Isn't that what people in love do, my mini-me?" she asked, shocking the younger Weiss yet again, while Ruby just fainted on the spot. Luckily she was caught by both Y-Pyrrha and Y-Yang.

"SAY WHAAAAAAAAT!?" the Younger Schnee screamed out, which caused the walls to reverberate.

That caused the older teams to laugh again, much harder this time, while the younger teams were shocked even more.

"W-Wait," Y-Jaune said, as he began pointing between the two, "You...and Ru...?"

"Lovers in my timeline, and the other one," E-Weiss said, giggling softly, "I believe my feelings developed for her two months after our first year at beacon started, and it took me another six months to realize them,"

Y-Weiss blinked at that, before she turned to the currently out cold Ruby, who had swirls for eyes, while muttering things like 'Weiss kissed me' over and over. A blush then formed on her face as she turned away, causing the older Weiss to giggle at her younger self's misfortune.

"You may try to deny it," said E-Weiss, "But the heart never lies,"

They then heard a knock at the door and turn as they spot the nurse assigned to Ru appear, a deer faunus with doe ears instead of antlers.

"Um, excuse, Miss Schnee?" she said, "I believe your sister, Specialist Winter Schnee, has arrived from Atlas,"

This caused the two Weiss' heads to perk up, as looks of excitement (Y-Weiss) and sadness (E-Weiss) etched on their faces.

"Oh! Thank you!" Y-Weiss said, as she eagerly left the room, wanting something to take her mind off the revelation she just learned. E-Weiss however, looked as if she had seen a ghost. E-Yang, seeing her teammates discomfort, walked over and placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Hey! You okay?" the blonde asked, while the silverette shook her head.

"What do you think?" she said, "I last time I saw her she was..."

She stopped herself there as new tears of sadness formed in her eyes. E-Blake walked up next to the Schnee Heiress and gave her a hug.

"We know how important she was to you." the cat faunus said, "Yang was the same way when our Ruby died,"

The younger Teams, sans Ruby who is still unconscious, looked at the older Weiss, all of them in concern.

"I assume something happened to your sister," Ren spoke up, causing E-Weiss to smile slightly.

"Got it in one go, as always," she said, while the Older Ren took over for her.

"Winter was killed while protecting Weiss from Mercury's killing blow that was meant for her," he said, "However, she lived long enough just to say goodbye,"

The Elder Yang then took over from there.

"After that, we managed to catch the little shit, and after I beated him black and blue, Weiss here delivered the final touch," the blonde said, making everyone's eyes widen, E-Yang then turned back to her silverette friend. "Why don't you go and see her. It might give you some closure,"

E-Weiss was hesitant at first, but nodded as she walked out of the room. The others all looked on as the Schnee Heiress walked out, all of them feeling for the woman. It was at that moment that Ruby woke up from her faint spell.

"Ugh...what did I miss?"

* * *

The Schnee Heiress was making her way to the docks, where she saw her sister's ship. A mix of Atlas soldiers and AK robots standing in front as the ramp came down.

Behind her and slightly to the left was the elder Weiss, dressed in military attire. It was odd, seeing an older version of herself in Winter's clothes. Somewhat explainable by the fact that they were the only real thing that probably fit her. However her thoughts went to the ship as she saw her sister come down the ramp. However, she wasn't alone as there was man with her, dressed in an Atlas Military uniform similar to Ironwood's, but the rank insignia was that of a captain.

"Winter!" The younger Weiss shouted in greeting as she made her way toward her older sister, while E-Weiss stood back. All the while looking at the man, and her eyes widened slightly at who it was.

 _'No way...it can't be!_ '

The man had never given his name, but he had given them aid until he was killed by Cinder, but that had cost the bitch greatly as he used some kind of explosive device that leveled most of the city they were in. Cinder constantly suffered from a chronic cough afterwards, as well as burns that never faded, and her hair seemed to start falling out.

He was a soldier and scientist, always working to find some wonder solution to the Grimm. He never found it. Though, she did remember him having a no-bullshit attitude, especially when she heard him rant once about warning Ironwood sending the damn AK-200s into field duty so soon, without proper protection against hacking.

He was right. And now, the same man was right here, next to her sister. Stone faced expression and all. E-Weiss could only give a small sigh.

"What a wonderful world," she muttered.

Both approached, the elder Schnee (Weiss' counterpart was actually older than Winter, but younger than Winter's counterpart) being surprised to see another woman in her uniform, looking like their mother. "Weiss...who is this?"

"It's a very...complicated story." Weiss said apprehensively, "She's a relative."

Winter's eyes narrowed suspiciously.

"I know our relatives, Weiss." she said, making the Younger Schnee nervous.

The older Weiss chuckled. "Not all of them. We'll be introduced later. You're about to have...other problems."

The captain coughed, gesturing them to move along. "Oh, yes. Weiss, this is Captain...actually, he's never given his name."

"And I would prefer it that way." The captain said gruffly, "Shall we get on with it? I believe General Ironwood and Headmaster Ozpin want to speak with us?"

"Of course," said Winter, "Shall we?"

"Of course," both the Weiss' said at the same, causing the younger to blink before glaring at her older counterpart, while the elder just smirked. Winter, only rose a curious brow, before shaking her head, and the four, along with their escort went down the path towards the school from the docks, their Robot soldier escort walking in sync with them. However, they were unaware of a single black avian that was flying toward the two straggling robots before it was too late.

The Captain reacted, though it was only an eye twitch: clearly, he knew Qrow, and wasn't in the mood to deal with bullshit as when Winter stopped, he kept walking, pulling out a notepad and making notes that Weiss KNEW were for his bomb.

However, her attention then turned to the commotion behind them as the sound of metal slicing through metal was heard, before the head of one of the robots flew toward them and landed at their feet.

"Hey!"

E-Weiss could only groan.

"Oh crap, I forgot about him," she said, as they looked at the person who showed up, who was holding the decapitated robot by it's stump of a neck.

"Yeah, I'm talkin' to you, _Ice Queen_ ," the now revealed Qrow said, as he casually tossed the now deactivated piece of junk away.

"Do you know who you're-" E-Weiss put her hand on her younger self's shoulder. "Not us. He's talking to Winter."

"Saw that gaudy ship of yours in town. Guess you're here too."

"I'm STANDING right before you." Winter pointed out.

Qrow squinted his eyes a bit before he smirked. "So it would seem."

"You realize you just destroyed Atlas military property?" The specialist stated. While Qrow looked at the dismantled robots.

Before he could make a witty remark, E-Weiss groaned. "Oh, for fuck's sake, just kiss already. The passive-aggressive crap was only entertaining in hindsight." Both froze before looking at E-Weiss. "What? Either kiss or shut up."

It was silent for a moment, while Y-Weiss was looking between her sister and the crazy guy who just showed up. Before Qrow suddenly just burst out laughing.

"Oh man! That was good!" the drunk man shouted, "At least one of your relatives has a sense of humor,"

Winter didn't seem to enjoy that, as she turned to glare back at him.

"I have no time for your immature games, Qrow," she said, adding venom to the name, "So either hold your tongue, or I will GLADLY remove it for you,"

With extra emphasis she drew her saber. Qrow just smirked while his eyes closed.

"Alright then," he said, and brushed his hair back, "come take it,"

"If you excuse me, I'll be dealing with Headmaster Ozpin." The Captain left before the fight began, with Winter rushing at Qrow.

"Hunters. For fuck's sake, WHY do we need them?" He growled lowly as he continued to write in his note pad.

Meanwhile, Qrow was dodging Winter's blade. And quite well until she made a downward strike, which impacted Qrow's weapon, which deployed in its' sword form and the duel truly began.

"Times like this, I have to agree with the Captain. And other times, I know why."

Weiss looked at her older counterpart as Ruby was seen in just at the corner. "Why?"

"Because that man made a weapon whose use is...questionable at best."

Weiss blinked along with Ruby as she heard what the elder just said.

"He used against Cinder during the Battle of Mantle." she said, "Blew it up right in her face, destroying the entire city, and himself, along with it,"

The two girls' eyes widen at that, before turning back to the duel as Qrow managed to drive Winter off the causeway and to the side.

The two began a running battle, Qrow having an edge in ranged combat as he fired at Winter before the battle returned to the ground, Winter using her semblance to send thousands of mini-Nevermores Qrow's way, but they didn't even hurt him.

"Love taps. I never asked, but I've always assumed this was their version of flirting." The youngers stared at , who drew her Mystercaster and used her semblance to slow time down for everyone else and keep it at normal rate for herself.

Winter rushed at Qrow, both blades drawn before Weiss deflected the longsword. "I think you're done." She said pointing behind Winter, "You're both in trouble now."

Winter blinked, before her eyes widened, and she turned around and saw General Ironwood, along with Professor Ozpin and Goodwitch.

"What's going on here, Schnee?" the General ordered, with a serious tone to his voice.

"General, with due respect, they haven't seen each other in a long time. I think their little lover's spat served as a..." smiled all too sweetly. "Preview of the rest of the tournament."

Both combatants stared at , who not only embarrassed them, but in front of their respective superiors. Watching this, Y-Weiss could only gape at the audacity that her older counterpart was doing, while Ruby was barely able able to contain her laughter.

Seeing this, and feeling embarrassed herself, the youngest Schnee gave the younger girl a good bonk on the head which caused her to go into a temporary seizure, while her eyes went blank white.

James could only sigh at this as he facepalmed, while Ozpin just smirked, and Glynda was being...well, Glynda.

Sucks to be them. Well, mostly Qrow and Winter, as their little secret was now out. (FWACK! I know it's not confirmed; I don't CARE! I'm a romantic!)

"We'll speak in Ozpin's office." Ironwood pointedly looked at , who did not flinch. "Especially you."

"Glad to." E-Weiss said, as she sheathed her Mystecaster, and began following the General's lead, she then turned to Y-Weiss, who had a red blush on her face, as Ruby was coming to. And when she saw her uncle, the red hooded girl beamed in happiness as she jumped forward and latched onto his arm.

"Hi, Uncle Qrow! Did ya miss me!?"

"Why, hello, brat." He rubbed the top of her head, resulting in a smiling Ruby.

May almighty Monty have mercy on our souls. ([Wilhelm Scream])

At any rate, Qrow got the hyper huntress off his arm, and said he'd see her team later. He had OTHER bullshit to deal with.

* * *

Ozpin's office was...cramped.

The elder WBY and JNPR were all in the room, which had Winter on edge. These people were skilled warriors, and that was just from the look of them. Her instincts were yelling at her to run, not walk, to the nearest exit and not look back.

Soon, Qrow entered the Office, and he blinked at the amount of people now inside. And to make it more nerve wracking, he saw older versions of his eldest niece, along with all their friends. But before he could think anymore, he was grabbed into a bone crushing hug by the Elder Yang.

"Hey you dusty old bird!" the blonde said, as the Branwen gasped for air.

"What. The-"

"They're from alternate future that the Elder Ruby created." Ozpin stated, "Apparently, Ruby's plan worked. We found them less than a day after their younger counterparts found out about the elder Ruby."

Qrow slipped out of Yang's grip, before he registered what his old mentor just said.

"Wait, wait, they ALL KNOW, now?" He said, total surprise on his face.

"Ruby's demented state force her to attack Team CRDL and she nearly killed Teams RWBY and JNPR." Glynda informed.

Qrow slapped his face at that, cursing under his breath, before looking at Winter, who had a look of confusion on her face.

"Does SHE know?" he asked, pointing his thumb at the former Heiress, now Specialist. James sighed at that.

"I was just about to tell her," the cyborg general said, while Qrow sighed, brought out his flask, and took a couple swigs.

"Well this just keeps better and better." the Branwen said.

Winter only blinked as she looked at everyone, "Would someone explain to me-"

Ironwood held up a hand. "Several months ago, a woman saved the Fall Maiden - yes, the tales are real - from someone who attempted to take her powers. That woman is the future version of Ruby Rose, whom you have met, and we have confirmed they are the same person."

The Schnee daughter had a look of complete shock and confusion on her face.

"But...cloning can produce a person with the same genetic pattern!" she said, being no stranger to the mostly rarely used technique which generally reserved for people who couldn't have children the natural way.

"The doctors assured that the telomeres and DNA strands were fully intact with no sign of replicative fading." Ozpin said to the Specialist, "They are the same person, though the one that saved Amber is much older and suffers from PTSD and dementia. She claims to be the only survivor of a war between the Grimm and humanity."

The Captain, who was included thanks to his wonder weapon, coughed. "I was apparently responsible for the creation of the device. I have sped up development, as per request. My test craft is in the area as well, in case you wish to use the weapon."

General Ironwood nodded, "Right, when can you commence the operation?" he asked, and the Captain grinned.

"Right away, if you want me too, sir," the Atlas officer said, "However I'm NOT letting those AK-200s near it. The 130s are okay, but other than them, we need this to have a human touch. Well, human control. The 200s just aren't ready."

"The Atlas Council has already decided to deploy them." James countered, and the Captain just glared.

"Well, if the shitbirds actually LISTENED to me, they would know that the software in the 200s is still new and untested," he growled out, "There is still the high probability that they can be hacked! If just one person can get in and plant a Control Virus in the main terminal, then we're screwed!"

"We're already aware of that, Captain," said Ozpin, "We already took measures to ensure that doesn't happen,"

"Forgive if I don't so optimistic. If this ends badly, I'm deploying the OTHER weapon." the Captain said with resolve, "I've never trusted you Hunters and I never will."

"Yet you work for us, Captain." Ozpin clarified, while the Atlas officer just narrowed his eyes.

"I work for the Councils, not you." He said, "You cling to a way of life that is quickly proving to be out of date and worthless. And when you fail, I'll be there to finish the job that you couldn't. Now, if you excuse me, I have to prepare the bomber."

With that, the Captain left the office, making everyone in the room sigh.

"Well, nice to see he hasn't changed," E-Blake said. The other members of the group couldn't help but agree with her.

"So Qrow, the coordinates that Ru left us," Ozpin said wanting to get his attention away from the conversation they had with the Captain. "What were the results?,"

"Do the words 'shit ton of Grimm' mean anything? That asshole's 'wonder weapon' won't mean a damn to that many Grimm. Hell, all the hunters in Vale and the Atlas military won't mean a shit."

E-Jaune shuddered at that. "You'd be surprised. I've seen what that thing did. It...destroyed an entire city. Leveled everything. We barely survived thanks to his personal aircraft and our aura levels. Cinder took the explosion at point-blank range, and she was dying for months afterwards."

"We found out after we killed her that it was high concentration of radiation poisoning that was slowly killing her. It left her so incredibly weakened, that it was easy to finish her off," E-Pyrrha said, shaking her head, "The symptoms were, horrendous,"

The other elders all shivered at that, while the Teachers, and one field agent gaped in horror.

"Geez, just what kind of weapon did this guy build?," Qrow said, now more fearful of the bomb the Captain was talking about.

"We will worry about that in due time." Ozpin said, "The only other thing right now, is Ru's current mental condition. Even though her body's healing, after we cured her, she's now in a catatonic state."

"There...IS a way to break her out." Pyrrha said a little hesitantly, "When one maiden suffers from a great loss and is trapped in their own mind, one of the others can go inside and break her out of it. The other Maidens taught it to me before they perished. It's not exactly nice, but it's the only way to get her out. I just hoped we shouldn't have to use it."

"At this point, Miss Nikos, I'm afraid desperate times call for desperate measures," Ozpin said, while Pyrrha nodded.

"I know," the Spartan said, "But, since it's Ru's mind, she'll fight back... and with great ferocity,"

"Hopefully she'll be too mentally exhausted to fight," said Ren.

"I severely doubt that." E-Weiss said sadly.

"Seeing as Miss Rose is...herself, you have a point." Ozpin said, "I should advise clearing her room of breakables."

"I would actually recommend full restraints for us both." Pyrrha said insistently, "Just in case."

Ozpin didn't bother arguing. They had other things to contend with.

Like the younger Team RWBY.

And a certain asshole that needed to be talked to.

* * *

Roman Torchwick had spent five days trying to forget the nightmarish woman. The last two weeks he had spent screaming in terror as he remembered what she did.

Screw Cinder. That Cat Lady was the scariest thing on the planet.

And he didn't even know her real name.

The door to his cell opened, and he saw the Headmaster of Beacon at the doorway.

"Ah, the great Wizard of Beacon graces me with his presence," said Roman a little sarcastically, while giving a mock bow, "What can I do for you Prof?"

Ozpin took a sip from his mug of coffee before he answered.

"Roman Torchwick." the Headmaster stated, "A skilled former huntsman turned criminal. A rather successful one, at least until Miss Belladonna was done with you."

Roman's eyes widened in fear at that, "Wait, you mean cat lady?"

"Yes, I mean her." Ozpin said, "She is...the older sister of one of my students. Which brings us to the crux of the matter. I find myself in need of your services."

Roman outright laughed. "Really! You want me to steal something for you?"

"No, what I need are your skills and knowledge." the wizard said, making the master thief blink.

"...My skills and knowledge?" he said, and Ozpin nodded.

"Yes. You have knowledge of the entire criminal underworld," the old man began, "You know every single thief, street thug, gang, and information broker in Vale. That makes you both valuable for us, and a loose end for your boss,"

"So?" Roman said with an arched brow. But became a little unsettled by the smirk the professor gave him.

"I have an offer for you. If you teach some of my students, I will attempt to convince the Vale Council to give you a clean slate. If not...Cinder Fall is not the one you should fear. I have an Atlesian captain who wants to test something dangerous, and six VERY angry people who are not happy with you. I would say seven...but you already know one of them."

Yeah, black hair, yellow eyes, cat ears and a sword. Not hard to miss.

Roman could only gulped. The Cat Lady was bad enough!

"So, uh, when do I start my new job?" he said, and the smile on Ozpin's got bigger.

"Tomorrow. Oh, and you will be watched, and I've taken the liberty of acquainting you with your guards," Ozpin said, and stepped aside to let the thief out

As Roman stepped out, he quickly found out he was screwed as he saw a woman with orange hair and a massive hammer and a black/magenta-haired man with a pair of holstered bladed SMGs.

"Meet Lie Ren and Nora Valkyrie. They'll be...guarding you." Roman resisted screaming. He saw the younger versions once during a job. Though HOW they suddenly became adults-

"It's complicated." Ozpin clarified. "I'll fill you in if you can prove to be trustworthy. If not-"

"I'll break your legs! Hehe!" Nora said a little insanely.

"Oh...fuckberries," was the only thing that Roman could squeak out.

* * *

 _ **Ru's Room**_

* * *

As instructed, all breakable objects that could be used as a weapon, or a suicide tool, were removed, while Ru was strapped down. Tight enough where she couldn't get away, but not enough where the straps won't cut into her.

"Ok, at best, this is insane. But if Ru's going to be walking around, doing things, this has to be done." Pyrrha said as she touched Ru's head, connecting their auras to one another.

Though they were desperate, this was a VERY dumb thing to do. The human mind was a remarkable thing, but VERY dangerous if you messed with it the wrong was. Thus if Ruby tried to kill her, they would BOTH die. Both mentally AND literally.

"Just be careful, Pyrrha," said Jaune worriedly, "We don't know how she'll fight back,"

Pyrrha only looked at the man she loved with a smile.

"Don't worry Jaune. I'll be back," she said, before focusing herself, as she felt her consciousness dive into Ru's mind.

"What do we do, now?" Glynda asked, while Jaune sighed.

"Now, we wait and see what happens,"

* * *

 _ **Patriot-112: And yo! Back again! And guess who decided to rejoin us...**_

 _ **Ron the True Fan: I was busy, damn it. I can't be in 80 places at once.**_

 _ **Patriot-112: But of course... but that's what makes it so much fun!**_

 _ **Ron the True Fan: Just get on with it.**_

 _ **Patriot-112: Right, you know the drill peeps! Leave a fave, follow, or review. Don't be a Troll. Flames will be used to start a stake bonfire. Or Ron will just go after you with his new baby.**_

 _ **(Chainsaw revs)**_

 _ **Patriot-112: Until then!**_


	8. Chapter 7: Battle of Minds

**Patriot-112: Here we are again folks! And the battle for Ru's mind begins! This chapter is a little short, because it encompasses the whole event of this chapter. So Let's begin.**

* * *

 **Chapter 7:**

 **Battle of the Minds**

* * *

 _ **Inside Ru's mind**_

* * *

Pyrrha snapped her emerald eyes open, and looked around. From what she could see, she was at Beacon, but this Beacon was like the one in Ruby's and her future. The Academy was in ruins, with the tower gone, crumbled to the ground. It saddened the Mistralian to see this, as this was the state of the mind of her now catatonic honorary little sister. However, she knew she had no time to wallow in sorrow as she began her mission to look for said woman.

She began by searching the amphitheater hall... the place where they were all introduced to Beacon by Ozpin...and the first place where she caught a glimpse of the boy who would become her lover. She smiled fondly at the memory. Back then, they were all still just young teenagers in school, with raging hormones just wanting to break free to the surface. That was dashed four months later.

Deciding to move on, she then headed to the ruined dorm building, and checked the dorm rooms where both Team RWBY and her own Team stayed, she looked in Team RWBY's dorm, seeing the bunk beds now being just a pile of rubbish on the floor, with Ruby's own bunk's ropes snapped, and the bed itself crumpled on Yang's. Seeing she wasn't here, Pyrrha left the Dorm room and the building itself.

"Where are you Ruby?" she said to herself worriedly, "We want you back with us. ...Please, don't be afraid anymore...,"

Then she heard it...that sound. The sound of a piano playing, and the tune it was playing was familiar, and it wasn't long till she recognized that song.

Listening to the tune, she pinpointed where it was coming from, and her eyes widened in realization and hope.

 _'The ballroom hall!_ ' she thought with elation, and immediately began to bolt toward the direction of said building, _'Hang on Ruby! Keep playing that song!_ '

It didn't take her long to find the said building, and to her surprise, unlike what happened to the hall in her timeline, the hall was still in it's former glory. Deciding to leave the question alone for now, she began trekking toward the building.

" **You cannot save her**..." a familiar, cruel, female voice said, causing her to stop, "... **she has already accepted her fate** ,"

Pyrrha scowled at that. She already knew the owner of that voice anywhere. The same person who killed Ru in the other timeline, and who she loathed with a passion.

"I WILL save her!" she shouted, determination coloring her tone, "She's already suffered enough because of you! She deserves to be free and happy with all of us!"

She then began to hear chuckling, before wisps of mist began to form small tornado columns, nine in total.

" **She will NEVER be free**!" the voice, that she recognized as Cinder's said, as said woman appeared before her, though her appearance matched Salem's with the inclusion of bone pale skin, red/black grimm eyes, and the grey veins around said optical organs, the phantom of Cinder spoke again, sinister smirk on her face, " **She will be trapped here forever, living with the pain...** ,"

Then the small twisters began to show the identities of Ruby's past. All of them with the same appearance as Cinder, their features more Grimm like.

First, herself...

"... **of guilt**..."

...Yang...

"... **sorrow**..."

...Weiss...

"... **bitterness**..."

...Blake...

"... **regret**..."

...Jaune...

"... **failure**..."

...Nora...

"... **loneliness**..."

... Ren...

"... **misery**...,"

...and finally, of a younger Ruby.

"... **and loss** "

The Phantom Cinder then continued to speak.

" **You cannot help her**...," she said arrogantly, "... **Even now she fades. One light, alone in the darkness**."

Pyrrha glared defiantly at the mental phantoms before her, her hand clenched into a fist, as her Maiden powers began to manifest in her hand.

"She is NOT alone...," she growled, as as the light took form and disappeared from her hand, revealing Ruby's HFV sword, _Onyx Justice_. The Phantoms brought out their own weapons as they prepared to fight her to prevent her from getting to her sister by spirit. "...and you should've STAYED dead!"

She began hacking through them, the phantoms being little more than voices and shadows that Ruby could not combat on her own. Pyrrha had been hurt, but she was not broken. It only drove her forward with her mission to save the girl who risked her own life to save hers... and gave her life.

She dealt with them easily, as she either decapitated, eviscerated, or any other thing that involved being killed with a blade. The final phantom, which was ironically Cinder, she gave a slash across her right eye, along with her hand, before decapitating her. She then breathed a sigh of relief, before she began to walk to the hall.

However she then heard a roar above and looked as she spotted the same Grimm Dragon she faced ten years ago. It landed in front of her as it snarled at her daring the Spartan to continue forward. Pyrrha only glared at the phantom in front of her.

"You've got to be kidding me," she groaned.

She didn't have time for this. Pyrrha decided to just rush into the building, and once she got inside she slammed the doors shut. She sighed in relief, but then she heard the voice that was currently singing, and turned to the dais which the piano was stationed.

"Two, four, one, ten. Two, four, one, ten..."

And there she was, in all her broken glory. Her red hooded cloak was slightly torn at the edges, her hood remove, as she continued playing the piano.

"Am I transmitting? Is anyone listening? Contact~..."

Pyrrha began to walk toward her, as the haunting song continued.

By the time she was done singing, Pyrrha was directly behind her. She then reached her hand out to touch her shoulder as she uttered her name.

"...Ruby?"

The result was instantaneous as Ruby jumped straight up, and deployed her mental Crescent Rose. She screamed as she swiped down at the Spartan who quickly dodged out of the way.

While most people could keep their crazy on a leash, Ruby unfortunately was not one of them.

Which Pyrrha was quickly learning, but she knew with the state that Ruby's mind was now in, she was sloppy.

"Wait Ruby, stop! It's me!" she shouted, but the Red Reaper wasn't having any of it, as she shook her head vigorously.

"No! You're not real!" the Rose shouted, as she swiped her scythe rifle at the Champion who immediately jumped away. As she took a look at Ruby's face, Pyrrha could see how pale, tired, and scared she looked. Her thoughts were interrupted as Ruby charged at her, screaming like a feral animal, as she swung her Crescent Rose at Pyrrha who swiftly dodged the attacks, but didn't attack in return, due to not wanting to hurt her anymore than she is. The swings continued, though in Ruby's state of mind they were sloppy compared to the skill and grace the Spartan saw her used the weapon. However, that only made her slightly more dangerous as she nearly decapitated the Champion twice.

"Ruby! You need to calm down! I came to help you!" she called out desperately, "Please! Listen to me!"

"YOU'RE. NOT. REAL!" she screamed out, as she swung Crescent Rose again, but Pyrrha actually caught the weapon, much to Ruby's shock, before disarming her and tossing it aside. Ruby fell back on the floor, and tried crawling backwards trying to get away from the Spartan she firmly believed was another hallucination, created by the demons of her past. "N-No! Stay away! LEAVE ME ALONE!"

But Pyrrha wasn't having any of it, as she immediately rushed forward and pulled the Reaper into an embrace, causing her fellow redhead to start thrashing, and screaming even more.

"No! NO! NOOOO!" she shouted as she tried to move her arms to get herself free, but couldn't.

"Ruby! STOP! You succeeded!" Pyrrha shouted out, her hold on Ruby strong, "We're ok! We're alive! Your mission is accomplished!"

It then became quiet as Ruby stopped struggling, listening for the first time. "...W-What?"

"You did it." the Spartan said soothingly, "You won. You don't need to keep fighting alone anymore,"

Pyrrha then pulled away in order to look into Ru's eyes, as her own emerald eyes shed tears.

"Please Ruby...," she begged, "Come back home. Everyone's waiting for you,"

The Rose didn't say anything at first, before she raised her shaking hand, which the champion grabbed and held it gently.

"P... Pyrrha?" she managed to squeak out, "I-Is it...really you?"

"Yes, it's me. You did it. You saved us. You saved me." the elder redhead said, smiling as she placed her other hand on Ruby's face, caressing it gently, "Please, I want my little sister back. Come back with me."

Ruby was tempted to think this was a trick. But her demons were never this gentle. They would never tried to comfort her. They all wanted to hurt her, and make her relive her pain. They never spoke like Pyrrha was doing. Not until now.

This...this was real.

Tears began running from Ruby's silver eyes. Which were once filled with sadness, but were now filled with overwhelming joy, hope, and realization as she began to feel the comforting aura from Pyrrha comfort her.

"P...Pyrrha..." she said once more. And after receiving a confirming nod, the Reaper couldn't help it as she threw herself into her arms, wrapping her own arms around her shoulders. "PYRRHA!"

The Spartan grabbed onto the younger woman as Ruby began crying hysterically into her shoulder, all the while the elder woman was rubbing circles on her back to comfort her.

"Y...You're back...you're really...GAAAAHHHH!" she wailed as Pyrrha was shedding tears of her own, as the two held each other. Both of them not willing to let go.

"Shh...it's okay. It's okay," she said, "You're okay now,"

The two stayed that way as Ruby continued to pour all the emotions she had out.

"I-I'm sorry... I'm _so_ sorry...," she managed to get out between her sobs. Pyrrha wasn't sure if that apology was meant for attacking her, or failing to save her in the original timeline, she didn't know. Nor did she care to want to know, since for right now, all the woman needed right now was closure on her traumatic past.

"There's nothing to forgive Ruby," the champion said, "You warned me in time, and I'm alive and well, because of that. And I'm with Jaune, just like you advised,"

Ruby's hold tightened slightly, as she carefully snuggled into the older redhead's hug, making Pyrrha giggle happily on the inside.

After saying that, and with little effort, she picked herself up from the floor, with Ruby being carried in her arms. Said Reaper too emotionally tired to walk on her own.

"Let's get you home." she finally said, a grin on her face, while Ruby only nodded into her shoulder. Eyes closed, fearing that if she opened them, Pyrrha will not be there. And thus the Champion began walking to the exit, her honorary sister in her arms, just as the mental world around them began to silently break apart.

* * *

Ruby's eyes regained focus as she caught sight of Team JNPR, with Pyrrha dominating her sight before she backed off, and Jaune entered her line of sight.

"Hey, Ruby." The Blonde Arc said, showing his goofy grin that she remembered on his face, "Welcome back."

Ruby blinked a few times before she finally looked at Jaune closely.

He was taller. And older. Much older.

She then noticed that she wasn't coughing. Grimm essence was gone, at least. However right now, her focus was on her first friend on her first day at Beacon.

"Jaune?" she asked, and the said blonde Arc nodded, "...Why do you look so old?"

She saw him gawk at that, and then she heard a laughter she was all too familiar with and looked and saw Nora along with Ren. The latter didn't change much, but the former had slightly longer hair, as she held her sides while laughing, while the knight glared at her.

"It's not funny Nora!" he shouted as the girl began to calm down.

"It was to me," the Valkyrie said, as she looked at the younger girl, "Hey Rube-Rube!"

"N...Nora?" Ruby said, and then looked to the Stoic Ninja, "R-Ren?"

"Hey Ruby, it's good to see you back with us," the said second male of Team JNPR said.

All of them were older. Like... her eyes widened as she figured it out.

"You went into the past, didn't you." she didn't say it as a question as Team JNPR noticed.

"Yeeeeeeah, didn't have much choice, really." Jaune said, scratching behind his head, "Everything went to hell, but hey, at least Teams RWBY and JNPR survived! ...Well, not the Ruby from our timeline. But Yang's going to be happy to see you up and about! We're whole again!"

Two trips through time made a complete RWBY and JNPR. How depressing.

She was expressing this as well, which all of Team JNPR caught. But before they could ask, the door opened, and all of WBY entered, and when she saw them, Ruby's eyes widened.

"Weiss...Blake...Yang?" she said, a little above a whisper.

She barely had time to react before Yang grabbed and hugged her. "You're ok!"

"ACK! Yang..." Ruby gasped, as her face began to turn blue, "...can't breathe!"

"Don't care." the blonde woman said, happy tears leaking from her eyes as she held her sister tighter, "You need a hug."

"Yang let her go or you're going to kill her!" Blake said, and Yang pouted as she reluctantly let go, and allowed Ruby to take in a long breath.

"Where..." Ruby coughed. "Where's the other Ruby?"

"The younger one's with her team." Weiss said, before a sad expression came upon her face, along with the others, "The one that was with us...she didn't make it. Started the job of killing Salem. We finished the job."

Ruby only blinked as the depressed look only became worse as she looked at her hands.

"So, how did you all...?," she began, and Yang answered the rest.

"You can thank Leaf and an Atlesian Captain for that," the brawler said. "With Leaf's calibrations, and the Captain's determination, we got back here to help you out."

Ruby then gave a depressed sigh.

"So I just turned it from one scared little girl to seven equally fucked over people," she said gloomily, "Yippee."

FWACK!

Weiss slapped Ruby, the slightly younger girl actually blinking. "W-What-"

"You saved us!" Weiss shouted, "That means something! It may have been seven, but eight can make a difference! We can win this bullshit war once and for all!"

The Reaper looked at her, shocked. "But...But I..."

"But nothing!" the heiress snapped and grabbed the Rose gently by the sides of the head, "I know you suffered a lot, Ruby! You lost all of us, and you had no one to get you through the pain! But now, it's time for you to stop doing things by yourself, and let us help you out!"

The young woman's widened as they shimmered with tears, and then Ruby lost it and hugged Weiss, who didn't resist like she would have the day they met. They were soon joined by everyone else, as Ruby began to cry again, unleashing all the pain and sadness she endured for all those years. Yang placed a comforting hand on her younger sister's head as she consoled her.

"Hey now," Yang said, a true happy smile on her face, "There's no need to cry anymore, Rubes. We're not gonna leave you alone again... we promised,"

Ruby didn't answer, as she just accepted all the comfort from the people she loved and missed the most.

* * *

Outside, a girl was watching the eight, as they all took turns in comforting the crying woman. She then reached into her pocket, pulling out a white scroll with a symbol of a red bloody beowolf head and tapped a contact number.

"This is Fawn," the woman said, "I found the girl that Cinder's looking for,"

" _Excellent. Where_?"

"Beacon Academy." The girl reported, "Teacher's Dorm, near the medical wing."

* * *

"Very well. Keep an eye on them." said Adam Taurus as he ended the call and sighed. "She's at Beacon. Near the Medical Wing,"

"Beacon? That means she managed to get to Ozpin." Emerald said in frustration, "Damn it, I thought that sickness killed her!"

Adam Taurus shook his head. How could one girl be THAT dangerous?

"And what's so important about this girl, anyway?" the Bull Faunus said, "What did she do to get all three of you so spooked?"

The two glared at him.

"Oh, I don't know," Mercury said sarcastically, "Maybe it's because she TRIED TO _KILL_ US!"

"Many people have tried to kill you."

"None of them got _THAT_ FUCKING CLOSE!" Emerald countered, "She nearly killed us! If that cough hadn't stopped her, we'd be bloodstains on the ground!"

Adam hated humans, but Mercury and Emerald, and to a greater degree Roman Torchwick, who sympathized with the White fang, earned his respect at least. They were excellent warriors.

So when someone nearly killed them and Cinder, who he hated...well, fuck, that was bad.

"So what do you plan to do with her, now that you found her?" he asked, and he was answered by the woman herself, who looked like she hadn't slept in weeks. If the dark shadows under her eyes, or the slightly disheveled hair was any indication.

"Hopefully kill the bitch." Cinder grounded out, her amber eyes burning with vengeance in mind, "I need to stop seeing her in my nightmares."

Adam was SO looking forward to her screaming, though. Her little nightmares were entertaining to say the least.

But those survivors from Mountain Glenn said they saw something similar: an older Blake Belladonna who clearly had no problems killing her allies.

"So what do you want me and my people to do?" he asked, and Cinder looked toward him.

"During the festival, your people are gonna provide a distraction while me and my cohorts sneak into the Academy's Med Wing, and snatch her." Cinder laid out, "Hopefully the distraction you provide will keep them focus on you long enough for us to get in and out without being seen."

"And if you fail?" He asked, which resulted in Cinder glaring at him.

"We _won't_." She said with assured finality, "She WILL die. No matter what medical treatment she's been given...she. Will. DIE."

"Very well." He said, while his eyes narrowed behind his mask, "I can hunt down a traitor while I'm at it."

Blake Belladonna was at Beacon, and she would pay for her desertion. He would kill her, and failing that, destroy all she loved.

"Yes, you will get your revenge," said Cinder, "But remember, you're only distracting. Once you know we got the girl. Fall back as quickly as possible."

Adam nodded at that, as she grabbed Wilt's sheath.

"Consider it done,"

* * *

Weiss, Blake, and Yang all smiled as they watched Ruby sleep peacefully, smiling for the first time.

The Schnee Heiress was tempted to coo and kiss her awake, but she resisted it. She was carefully rubbing Ruby's hand being careful not to wake her up.

"When Cinder's dealt with, I'm taking her back to Patch." She said, knowing that's exactly what she'll do once the fiery bitch was taken out of the picture for good.

The other two members of Team RWBY nodded at that.

"Yeah, I think she'll like that," Blake said, "Even Ozpin planned to have a couple houses built for us near her home, one for JNPR and one for us."

Yang nodded, glad they were going to be able to go home.

"I think she'll like that after all the crap she's been through," she said, "Away from the constant fighting, away from the Grimm, the White Fang...all of it,"

"We still have to worry about Salem." Blake said worriedly, "As long as she lives, we'll never know rest. We have to finish the fight."

"We'll deal with her when we have to." Weiss said, "Until then, she needs to rest. She's earned it many times over,"

The other girls nodded just as Team JNPR entered the room, with Pyrrha smiling when looking at Ruby's peaceful expression as she slept.

"She looks so calm now!" she said, happy that she was now sleeping normally instead of a coma.

"Definitely better than the state she was in before." Jaune said, happy to see his first friend at Beacon was alright.

As they looked at her, they all began to remember important times where they spent time with her in their own time

In Pyrrha's memories, a week after she found out her existence, Ruby had caught a serious cold, and Pyrrha stayed with her while the doctor went to get the medicine for her.

The Spartan was then surprised when she woke up briefly, and asked if she was asleep or awake. If so, she didn't want to leave: she had her sister back. Pyrrha comforted her, telling her that she'll be okay. But the energy drain, and the cold itself, forced her back to sleep.

Jaune then remembered when he watched Ru's message to him.

Pyrrha's death forced him to work harder, get better, and stronger. He may not have killed Emerald and Mercury, but he DID make them bleed so much that by the end, they feared seeing him.

Cinder had suffered at his hands as well.

But the best thing that happened was Pyrrha's survival, and their confessions to one another.

The ultimate proof were the rings on their fingers.

Nora remembered when she found the recipe for the chocolate chip recipe pancakes, Ru had left for her, which she immediately fell in love with. She remembered Ruby telling her to have fun, though honestly for Ren, it was a horrible nightmare.

"You guys need to rest." Jaune said "We'll take over for you."

Weiss however didn't look like she wanted to comply. She was VERY reluctant to leave Ruby's side for even for a single minute

"We're fine." she stated firmly.

"Weiss, just because you don't want Ruby to disappear again doesn't mean you can stay awake forever," Ren reminded, understanding the heiress' concerns, "You need to sleep."

Weiss growled mentally at that. That wasn't happening. Not by a longshot.

She then felt a hand on her shoulder and looked up at Yang who had a knowing smile on her face.

"Weiss, Ruby would've wanted you to get some rest, just as she's doing now," the blonde brawler said, and Weiss looked at the sleeping Reaper before sighing.

"Fine,"

The white haired woman left, followed by Blake and Yang, who rubbed her sister's head, and telling her to have a good night's sleep.

That left her with JNPR, as Pyrrha sat at her side, putting her hand on her hair. The result was Ruby making a cooing sound, like a cat being given a pat while it was asleep, as she leaned into the touch. Everyone of Team JNPR smiled at this, finding the act cute.

"You're okay, Ruby," Pyrrha said softly, as she continued to stroke the Reaper's hair, "It's gonna be alright, now,"

* * *

Unknown to the people in Ruby's room, they were silently being watched.

Wearing a white hooded cloak that seemed to glow in the moonlight, she was out of sight of JNPR, but she could see them and Ruby. The eyes of the woman were the same silver as the girl's in the room, as she stared lovingly, but sadly, at her.

"Oh Ruby, my little rose," she said somberly, "I'm so sorry."

She turned away, shedding tears before she jumped off the building, disappearing in a shower of white rose petals.

As she disappeared, a black red-eyed raven was sitting nearby on a nearby tower, before it cawed and flew off into the night.

* * *

 _ **Patriot-112: Wow, this was the shortest. Chapter. Ever. ...of this whole fic.**_

 _ **Ron the True Fan: Don't expect much after this. We have other shit to do.**_

 _ **Patriot-112: Yes unfortunately. Other fics to write, new ideas busting their way into our skulls...yeah, not fun. Until then, Later!**_


	9. Re-Editing & Notice

_**Hey Everyone! Sorry, it's not a chapter, unfortunately. This a notice that after careful reading, I have edited all the chapters.**_

 _ **Which means, the fourth wall jokes are gone, much better grammar, and more sense to the story. If you think I need do more, please tell me in either a review, or a PM.**_

 _ **In the meantime, if you haven't yet, check out my Aurea Mors: Reforge. My redoing of my second RWBY fic. It's only one chapter, but you will all see it's a little better than before, and once I get the next chapters planned out, it'll be a little more believable. Until then, ciao!**_


	10. IT IS HAPPENING!

Patriot-112: Yes...it's happening! The thing you've all been dreading! ...REDO!

Yes folks, I'm redoing this fic, due to many mistakes I saw in the original fic, as well as new info from Volume 6. So...yeah. But thankfully, I already got the prologue for the redo done! And ready to put it rickity tick. So, if you guys want to go see it, just go to my profile to find it, or search for it in the RWBY section.

Again, I'm sorry for the inconvenience. Cheerio!


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